Easy Birthday Gift Idea

My friend's son Dean LOVES the alphabet. He's amazing at telling you the letters and has been for a while now. SO, luckily during my east coast tour a few weeks ago I was able to attend Dean's third birthday party.

It was an amazing party, but in my opinion the best part was catching up with a few girlfriends after most people left...during the "after party" we sat and talked and relaxed and caught up. It was great! BUT, I also have to mention the breakfast burritos they served. Let me just say: YUM! I'm not sure if it was my friend, her husband, or both, but they created a burrito bar with refried beans, and cilantro rice (and eggs, and other deliciousness) but wow, was it good! Exceptional, really! But I digress.

Being that I knew Dean's love of the alphabet I wanted to make him something he would like, but would have a use. I saw the idea of Alphabet Bean Bags at U-Create and realized this would be perfect for Dean.

Unfortunately, I do not have any fancy machine to cut everything out for me (BUT, maybe I'll ask Santa for one?!) so I simply printed out the alphabet onto freezer paper. I used iron on adhesive--Heat n Bond--on the back side of the felt, and the freezer paper on the front. Then, I used some sharp scissors to cut out the alphabet. Luckily, my mother in law bought me some Baby Genius precut 5" fabric squares last summer and I'd been holding onto them for a rainy day...Once I adhered the uppercase alphabet, I realized I should probably create the lowercase alphabet on the other side of the beanbag, so I started over (basically.) Once I had the uppercase and lowercase alphabet cut out and adhered to the fabric squares I sewed along the sides leaving a 3" opening on one side. I then filled each beanbag with 3/4 cup of pinto beans (I did tell my friend if they were ever starving they could always eat the beans...hehe!) and pinned the opening shut. I sewed a seam 1/2" from the edge making sure the 3" opening was sealed well. This project WAS a little time consuming, but that was probably more because I decided to create the lowercase alphabet TOO!

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