Handmade Birthday gift - Memory Game

When you have small children, your house eventually becomes overrun with toys. Toys they use, and toys they've outgrown. There are the toys you purchased, thinking they'd be interested, and they aren't. And there are the toys that were gifted to you that you don't have the heart to "re-home".

For Payton's birthday, we decided she really, really didn't need any toys. Morgan did get her a baby My Little Pony nursery, etc., which is super, super cute, so I didn't want to add too much more to that.

I've had a homespun obsession lately so have been spending time searching around for homemade decorations, etc. I recently came across this little gem:



It just came out and has a lot of great little craft ideas for gifts and heirlooms. An idea that I saw and completely fell in love with was the Memory Game.

To make my memory game, I started with the Thrift Store Chic frames from Kitschy digitals. I then resized it to 2.5 by 2.5 and used that size for all my photos. You print 18 photos for a total of 36 squares. I adjusted the color a little bit on the frames to match the fabric that I was using.

To make this game extra special for Payton, I decided to use photos of her favorite things and people for this game. It'll be fun to look back on this game in a few years as her likes and dislikes change.

You then print them on printable fabric, and layer them with felt and fabric. I used Amy Butler Lotus fabric for this project.

After everything is put together, you stitch around the edge of your photo, and then use pinking shears to trim out your squares.

I'm going to use the remaining fabric and felt to make a little pouch for the game to keep it all together, but in the meantime, I just have it in a ziploc.





This game has been so fun and was a fairly inexpensive yet really meaningful gift for my little one. Toys you can have too much of, but you can never have enough games.

Before I go I wanted to also share some of my favorite pics from Payton's birthday party. It was a mish mash of horse. I couldn't decide on what type of horse theme to go with, but ended up with a carousel theme because of her obsession with the carousel at Disneyland. That said, the cake pan didn't get here in time, and we bought a unicorn pinata, and there were actual horses at her party for the kids to ride, so I had a little bit of everything. But she still LOVEd it, which is the point, right?


I was at a bit of a loss with what to do for the cake, with so many horse themes. I had ordered this but it didn't get here in time. In the end I'm glad, because I had a few too many horse themes anyway, lol. But weather it's a cowgirl, a carousel, a pony, or a unicorn, one thing they all have in common, in my opinion, is a star somewhere. So I frosted this three layer cake purple, Payton's favorite color, and topped it with star candles. It ended up being perfect!


I bought these chocolate carousel horses from here. They arrived quickly with an ice pack, and were a huge hit. I picked the colors and everything. These treat cups were really easy too. I just punched holes in drink cups and tied some ribbon. Inside I also had some carousel horse tattoos, a chipboard star, and a party blower.


I love this photo of the kids before they wreaked havoc on that poor unicorn pinata. My kids love pinatas. I think we have them at every party.

Sweet PJ with her scrunched up nose was really excited to have a turn riding the horses. We had two here. Jock and Key. Jock was a paint, and if you know my girl and her obsession with horses, knowing what she even calls her dog, you could guess how excited she was about that.

An unexpected and fun part of the day was this little ladybug. I saw it on the back of someone's pants and started showing it to the kids, and she'd occasionally fly off only to be found a few moments later on somebody else's jacket. The kids really enjoyed letter her crawl all over them and watching her fly away.


This last photo just cracks me up. Payton does this thing with her first and second finger where she makes the letter P. We were showing off her skills to Grandma when her cousin Raegan popped in and started doing it. I was just backing away when she dashed towards me with her fingers in the correct position. I was lucky to get this one as focused as I did. She's fast!

Anyway, a fun day was had by all. No foolin'.

Have a great day! Davinie