Craft Ideas for Kids using Toddler Pillows

After my post last night on toddler pillows for moms, I was suddenly flooded with ideas for craft projects using Mr. Bobbles' Blankets Toddler Pillows or our larger Youth Pillows.

1. An "autograph" pillow for slumber party gift and/or summer camp. Give one of our toddler pillows or Youth Pillows in a solid color fabric along with a fabric marker or permanent marker. During the course of the slumber party (or camp session), each of the child's friends can autograph the pillow - a very unique gift, and long lasting memories.

2. Iron on photos - purchase iron-on paper at a local craft store and use your color printer to print out your favorite digital photo. Iron the photo onto the pillow. This would be great in combination with the autograph pillow idea above. You can also use the iron-on transfer paper with one of your kids drawings - what a great way to preserve memories.

3. Make an autograph pillow for a teacher gift - have all of the kids in the class autograph the pillowcase for the teacher. You can even iron on the class photo.

4. Give an "autograph pillow" for a graduation gift - something the student can take off to college or with them on their summer travels. As an added bonus, consider embroidering the recipients name on the pillow first (or maybe "Class of 2009").

5. Tie Dye one of our solid white pillowcases - this would be a great rainy day craft project, or summer camp project.

6. Make a lap desk. I remember seeing this in one of my magazines a while back. Purchase a clip board at an office supply store. Use either self stick velcro, or a hot glue gun, and glue the clipboard to the top surface of the pillow. This makes a great lap desk for car trips, the airplane, etc. Also great for eating on the road. You can do the same thing with a dry erase board.

Toddler Pillows For Mother's Day?

Looking for something a little bit different than flowers this Mother's Day? Well nNow that summer is fast approaching and people are starting to plan vacations, keep in mind that our Toddler Pillows also make great travel pillows for moms/adults. They are the perfect size for the airplane, car, train, etc. They also work out great as an extra pillow in a hotel room or when you are a house guest. I'm a 2 pillow sleeper, so whenever we stay in hotels, or even with friends/family, there are never enough pillows so I always make sure to take a toddler pillow along with me. I also took one of our toddler pillows to the hospital with me (in the Floral Charm fabric) when I was in labor with my second son - it was great to have my own piece of home with me, and because of the bright colorful print, it never got mixed up or lost with the hospital bedding - same with hotels and airplanes - it's unique, CLEAN (you know where it's been), and stands out. It was also great during nursing - just a little bit of extra comfort to prop yourself up. Four years later, I still have my toddler pillow on my side of the bed, partly for decoration, partly for the memories that it holds, but I also slip it behind my neck when reading in bed and grab it whenever we take a trip. If either of my boys comes into our bed when sick or after having a nightmare, they get to use my "special" pillow.

I'm thinking about rotating through different pillowcases depending on the occasion- a western fabric for our trips to Oklahoma, the Mermaids or Crabs/Fish print for the beach, or seasonal prints for various holidays, etc.

Another idea that I really like is to use one of our plain white 320 thread count pillowcases and use fabric markers to document all of your travels - sort of like bumper stickers of the places the pillow has been (great idea for kids!). Or at craft stores, you can buy iron-on transfer paper and print a digital photo onto the paper and iron on the pillow.

Recently, one of my friends had major surgery and was having some back pain after her surgery. I gave her one of our toddler pillows (again in Floral Charm fabric) as some extra support for her back - support sitting in a chair, riding in the car, or laying in bed, waiting in doctor's offices. In a few weeks, my friend will begin chemotherapy, which I understand will be given by IV and runs about 5 hours - so I think the pillow will be perfect for those appointments. The bright floral fabric is enough to cheer anyone up and the size makes them so versatile and packable, they can be used for so many things. So if you are looking for a little bit of pampering (yet something also practical and unique) to give to a new or expectant mom, a friend having surgery, or a mom that is on the road a lot, consider one of our toddler pillows. And consider our embroidery option as well - it doesn't have to be a name but maybe a short inspirational phrase such as "Hope", "Laughter", "Courage", "Carpe Diem", "Adventure" or for Mother's Day, "#1 Mom" or just her initials as a monogram.

New Percale Fabric Options Available

Just added 4 new arrivals for Spring - all 100% cotton percale (non-flannel) fabrics. Mermaids (pictured to the right), Rock Star Guitar, Jungle Friends, and Dig It. These are a great option for the warmer weather and are sure to be a hit with your child. The Rock Star Guitar scan didn't turn out as cute as the fabric, so we'll be posting a better photo on the website after our next product photo shoot. Thanks for checking out our new fabrics!

Blog Review and Giveaway

We enjoy participating in many of the mom-based blog reviews and giveaways. We have submitted our products for review at a handful of blogs and we always receive a great response. Our latest review/giveaway is hosted by Jo's Blogspot (Mom of 3, soon to be 4) - a chance to read about and win some of our great products. Contest ends April 24. I will post the latest reviews/giveaways here so you can view them and possibly enter and win!

New Fabric Option Available

We have a new flannel fabric option - Solid Lilac (a really pretty light purple/lavender color - scan will be posted soon). Solid Lilac is available in pillowcases, standard blankets, and supersize blankets. As all of our flannels, it's a super soft, high quality fabric. We haven't had a purple color option in a while so perfect for those girls out there looking for something other than pink. Thanks for checking it out!

Study shows using a fan during sleep may reduce SIDS risk

I read an article about a recent study performed by the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland CA stating that using a fan to ventilate the air in baby's room during sleep may reduce the risk of SIDS by 72%. They also found that opening a window in baby's room may also reduce the risk. More studies need to be done, but the theory seems to be that the fan/open window helps ventilate the air thus helping to keep the infant from re-breathing exhaled carbon dioxide. Using a fan to ventilate the air does not replace the other recommendations for reducing SIDS - placing infants on their backs to sleep, removing soft blankets and bedding from cribs, keeping the room temperature comfortable and not too warm, keeping baby's environment smoke free, and using a pacifier. More studies need to be done, but the information is interesting. Read the full Kaiser article.

Now on Facebook!

Mr. Bobbles' Blankets has also recently been added to Facebook, so feel free to look us up and become a fan!

Now Shipping to Canada!

We have finally enabled shipping to Canadian addresses on the website! Over the years, we have shipped our items to Canadian customers but had to manually enter the order and take payments over the phone. Since we receive numerous requests to ship our products to Canada (and our new shopping cart system allows us to accept Canadian based payments and ship to Canadian based addresses!) I have finally set up the website to accept Canadian order. We have set up the shipping to allow for 2 options - a cost effective First Class International (parcel post) option which is the slower route, and Priority Mail International which should be a bit faster.

Youth Pillows - Not too big, Not too small

At the suggestion of one of our wonderful moms/customers, I recently added a new "Youth" size pillow to our website - 16"x20". She said that her kids had outgrown their Mr. Bobbles' Blankets toddler pillows, but still weren't ready for an adult sized pillow, so we came up with the 16"x20" Youth Pillow. This size pillow is great for older kids, perfect for sleepovers or summer camp, even great for adults (camping or for an extra pillow to prop you up while reading in bed). We designed the Youth Pillows with the same idea as our toddler pillows - lightly filled so it's still not too poofy or too firm for young heads/necks. We are also custom manufacturing Youth Pillowcases to fit in both flannels and satin (please ask if you would like a case in a fabric not listed). So far, the response has been incredible - we initially only made a handful to fulfill a few orders, but due to the demand, we've had to sew up a bunch more. Just another example of how great customer feedback helps us to fulfill a need out there or to create a hard-to-find product, etc. So keep those great ideas coming.

FYI - due to demand, our Youth Pillow orders are taking a few extra days to fulfill until we get caught up on the manufacturing of these newest items.

New Sales Items Added

I have added a few items to our sales for April:

1. Clearance No-Slip Playard sheets - added French Vanilla, Sage, and Tea to the clearance sale.
2. Extra pillowcases for Toddler Pillows - added a few Percale options to the One of a Kind sale - Westward Ho, Lil Cowgirl, Seafarer.

Keep checking back for more sale items and new spring/summer fabrics. Happy shopping!