A Mustache-a-preneur

You know that moment when your kid comes home with a craft assignment from school?  And you know that next moment where you, as a craft blogger, have to sit on your hands and zip up your mouth because the instructions clearly state that the assignment needs to be done by the child?  

Yeah, I recently had some of those moments.

Bu then, right after those moments, came the moment when my kid came up with a great idea.  An idea that was totally executable by her.  Admittedly, there was a family brainstorming session that evolved from her original idea but then she took off running.  

I could not be more proud.  

Here is the assignment as it was given:

Her original idea: felt mustaches.  On barrettes.  She had seen something similar in LA and in true DIY fashion remarked, "we can make those!"   

(You're feeling a little proud of her too, aren't you?) 

Then my husband (the only male in this house of estrogen) suggested applying felt mustaches with some sort of adhesive so they could stick on the kids' faces.  It was a great idea as boys far outnumber girls in her class, but we weren't sure how to apply an adhesive.  

So to appeal to the "boy" market, I suggested "shoe-staches".  She could take the same mustaches she was using on the barrettes, cut two vertical, parallel lines in the center and they could  lace them on their shoes. 

And with that a project was born.

We went to Michael's where we were thrilled to find adhesive-backed felt, perfect for those stick-on 'staches.  

Back at home, we took our handy mustache templates (which we have gotten a lot of use out of, a whole lot)... 

...and she traced the mustaches onto the adhesive backing:

After that it was just a matter of cutting them out.

And here she is modeling a 'stache.  (She's holding it on to preserve the adhesive.)

Next up was her baby: the barrettes.  First she cut them out...

And then she glued them on to these alligator clips (also purchased at Michael's).  

It was her first real hot glue experience.  

(I may have teared up a bit..)

And here she is again modeling the finished product.  Cute, right??

 

Last but not least were the shoe-staches.  She had made a prototype early on in the assigment and found that the felt she used for the barrettes was too "floppy".  Fortunately Michael's had a stiffer felt so we purchased that for this purpose.  

Again, it was a matter of tracing and cutting.  A perfect craft for an eight-year-old.  (Though I did help her cut the parallel lines where you insert the laces; that proved to be a bit tricky.)  

Here they are:

For the packaging she traced even more mustaches on to some small white bags. Then she (with a little help from big sister) colored them all in.

I must admit to helping with the tags.  She knew what she wanted to say but I made them with my Silhouette.

But in the end she cut all of the baker's twine and tied on all of the tags.

Her wares go on sale today and I could not be more proud of the thought and effort she put into her assignment.

Plus, if she's this savvy at eight, there's a decent chance she might be able to support me in my old age.

(Bonus!)