She's THREE!!!

I so love when I get to make something crafty for someone special and they just LOVE it to pieces!!! My friend's daughter was turning 3 and remembering back my girls loved their play kitchen when they were little but I knew space was premium at my friends house and who really has room for a huge kitchen? Putting on my thinking cap, I wanted something that you could store all the pieces in, yet could be used to play with as well.

It needed to be small enough a child could pick it up with ease, yet large enough to hold food and dishes and such, not to mention have a flat surface for a "stove." Nothing seemed right till when looking at my craft shelf realized a Creative Options Album Tote was perfect.

It was small enough a child could handle it, yet big enough to hold what I wanted. The flat surface of the top would work perfect for a "stove", and the lower height means it could slide under the bed, plus the fact the top was hinged meant it couldn't get lost as well.

But as you see the surface looks nothing like a stove, so I needed to decorate it a bit.

To start I grabbed some vinyl sheets, my Fiskars Ultra Shape Express and a couple of templates. I used pink and black to make the burners and knobs. Black cause it seemed right and pink to match our pink "stove"

I kept things simple, layered circles, for the burners, and stars for knobs. Making sure the surface was clean I stuck things down, using a bone folder to smooth out bubble and wrinkles when necessary.

Then I added a couple of baskets inside to hold the food, they can also be taken out for shopping, or to turn into sink. As my daughter added, you can also lift the lid to be a dishwasher or an oven.

At the birthday party the present was a hit with kids and parents alike, as the birthday girl's dad said "we like presents we can put away" and the birthday girl was so excited to play with it she didn't even want to eat her cake!