I clearly remember the year my mom helped me make a sit-upon for my Brownie troops’ camp (I remember it as well as I remember the smell of the ancient canteen I used to have to take with me to camp…. but that’s a story for another day….).  What’s a sit-upon?  Well, it’s… something… you sit upon.  Hmph – that was easier to explain in my head.  Here, let me show you…

Back in the day, Mom and I made my sit-upon out of a black plastic garbage bag and newspaper.  I wanted to improve on the design a bit, because while I remember making it and using it, I have no idea how long that black plastic sit-upon lasted, and I remember not enjoying it being tied around my waist.  I was told that it was to be worn around my waist so all I have to do is sit down and it would be in the right place, but even then I thought that was silly.  Maybe I don’t sit down like everyone else, but that sit-upon was too tight around my middle and always had to be adjusted when I sat.  So here’s what I came up with…

Gather your supplies:

• an old vinyl tablecloth or a shower curtain (the dollar store has shower curtains a-plenty!)
• newspaper
• a hole puncher
• large plastic needle
• heavy duty string or cord
• ribbon

Using your newspaper as a template, cut out a rectangle (or two or three – however many you will be making) on a fold of your vinyl tablecloth/shower curtain.

On a fold?  Fold your tablecloth/curtain in half and use that fold as one of your edges.  You will wind up with a 2 layered piece of cloth/curtain, and you will only need to sew up 3 sides instead of all 4!

Take a hole punch and punch holes spaced evenly around the 3 cut edges of your cloth/curtain through both layers.  You will be whipstitching the sides shut – see the picture below?  You just “whip” your needle around the back of the cloth/curtain and bring your needle and thread up through a set of holes, repeating the process over and over.

And I did say “you” will be stitching… Elias gave it his best shot, and did pretty well for his first time sewing anything by hand.

He wasn’t too interested in doing it “correctly” – so I just had to back up and let him do his thing.  He “finished” one side, and I finished it from there.

So I mentioned I never liked the sit-upon being tied around my wait – I wanted to make these so they slipped easily over a shoulder and could be plopped down on the ground wherever needed.  I used a length of ribbon for each sit-upon – and look!  My hole puncher could punch through ribbon!  Who knew? Punch 2-3 holes in your ribbon (depending on the width of your ribbon).

Sandwich the ribbon in between the layers of your cloth/curtain before you sew up a corner, then sew the ribbon in with the sides.  I added extra stitches around the ribbon so it would be reinforced, since that part of the sit-upon would potentially take more stress and strain than other parts.

Once you have 2 sides sewn up, stuff the sit-upon with newspaper.  My one from back-in-the-day only had flat newspaper layers in it, and I never thought that gave any cushioning for a little hinder.  So I just added some fluff to it – sandwich some crumpled up newspaper in between 2 layers of flat newspapers.  Sitting on it will flatten the crumpled layers out anyway, but in the meantime it will be a bit more comfy.  After stuffing, finish stitching up the sit-upon and tie off the end of your string, clipping any loose ends.

This step is optional – and can also be easily done before the sit-upon is sewn and stuffed – let your little ones decorate their sit-upon!  Super fun, and one thing I never got to do with my black plastic one.  Use permanent markers – you don’t want marker or paint coming off on little hind ends during your hike.

Here are ours, all ready to go!

This really was a walk down memory lane for me, and the boys have already had fun with the sit-upons… well, sitting upon them, amongst other things.  I wonder how long these will last…

linked to WFMW at We are THAT Family, Creative Share at Trendy Treehouse, Hoo’s Got Talent at Night Owl Crafting, Show & Tell at Blue Cricket Design, Gettin’ Crafty on Hump Day at Nikki’s Nifty Knacks, We Did It! Wedensday at Sew Much Ado and Idea Sharin’ Wednesday on Women Who Do It All!

One of my favorite camp crafts each year were those awesome leather bracelets.  Remember those?  Then I would wear it the rest of the summer and try to make it last to the school year… I thought my boys would like to hammer the letters and shapes into the leather bracelets as much as I did, so I set out to make some special memories.

Instead, I made a fun craft really hard.  If you want to do this activity, plan ahead and order these.  It will honestly save you some time and money… I had a bunch of random things laying around that helped defray the cost, but I spent more on some wider leather strips than the imitation leather craft bracelets cost, and they don’t need assembly! I didn’t have time to wait on an order to come in… Next year we’ll order some early and have them ready.

Now, if you want to do it the hard way, gather your supplies:

• some leather scraps (sold at most large craft stores – or reuse old leather purses or belts!)
• buttons/snaps
• scissors and wire cutters
• heavy duty needles
• a hammer
• some metal stamps sets (like this or this - the larger one would be better, I think)
• other random metal bits you have laying around the house (just for fun… I had a set of tiny “cookie” cutters for polymer clay that made some great shapes)
• some permanent markers

Once you get your leather scraps, cut them to size.  For the kids’ size, cut them to about 7 inches long, and for adults, cut them about 9 inches long.  In the pictures below, the kids sizes are the dark gray leather, and the adult sizes are tan.  You can make them any width you’d like!

Decide if you’d like to put snaps on your bracelets (hard!) or buttons (much easier!).  If you’d like to do snaps, get really frustrated with the first couple attempts to pass the prongs through your leather strip, then do this… poke the prongs into the leather just to make an imprint.

Then take a heavy-duty needle and poke through each imprint for each prong, and then work each prong through the poked holes individually until they are all the way through.  Install the rest of the snap according to the package’s directions.

Once you’ve done that enough times, you’ll have a pretty cool closure to your cuff.  But you’ll also be really tired, so you’ll move on to the buttons.

Using a heavy duty needle and heavy duty thread/cord/embroidery floss, sew a button on to one end of your bracelet on the front part of the leather.

Take wire cutters or snips or something sharp to start a hole in your leather.  My scissors wouldn’t do it alone at first, so I started the hole with the wire cutters and finished it with the scissors.

See? Finished button hole.

If you have a wider bracelet, you could make it adjustable by putting 2 buttonholes on it like this:

OK!  Now that all of your prep is done, you can give your child a hammer and some metal stamps, punches, etc.

Make sure your work surface is protected, because this could get messy.

Let them bang away for a bit… I think this would be a lot more fun for the boys if they could spell out what they wanted, but Elias didn’t have the patience for that.  He pounded out his name, and added some fun shapes, and he had a great time with it!

He did decide it was a bit plain, so he asked me to draw on it.  He didn’t want to draw on it himself, though.  This is where the permanent markers come in.  Draw around some of the hammered shapes to accent them, or do a new design!  Donovan’s bracelet was stamped with the 1/8 inch steel stamps, and it says “Jesus loves Donovan.”  I used the same stamps for mine, and I just stamped “Be Still.”  I need a constant reminder.

Elias wasn’t too excited to get his picture taken, but I think this was a fun one for us all!

At least, it was fun for me again once all the prep work was done.  Let’s see if I can make mine last until fall!

Can I just tell you all how excited I am about our 2 weeks of Summer Camp?!? Like Amanda, I always loved summer camp, and these two weeks are taking me way back!  Don’t be surprised if I break out into old camp songs… My kids and poor hubby are already inundated with the old tunes.

The first thing I knew I wanted to make were hobo meals!  When I came home from camp, I always had mom and dad make these for us – I loved the way the flavors melded together in the little foil packets of goodness.  So here’s what you’ll need:

• ground meat (beef or turkey)
• carrots
• potatoes
• onions
• any other veggies that would roast well (mmm, broccoli! asparagus!)
• salt and pepper
• butter
• cheese (optional)
• aluminum foil

Cut the potatoes and carrots into bite-sized pieces, and slice the onions up however you like them!  I left them kind of big so I could pick them off the kids packets in case they didn’t like them.  Make a 3-4 oz. patty with your ground meat and place in the middle of a piece of aluminum foil, and salt and pepper the meat patty a bit.  Line up your ingredients and then let your kids add the veggies to their own packets…

Notice the only things in Elias’s packet are meat, carrots and cheese.  He decided he didn’t like potatoes – but that’s OK, because he ate everything he put in it!

This is what a real hobo meal should look like – pile the veggies high, add cheese if desired, put a pat or two of butter on top and sprinkle with more salt and pepper.

Wrap the aluminum foil up around the food, folding at the ends, and let your 4 year old “write” each person’s name on the top of their packet.  If you are adding this to a real campfire or a fire pit out back, wrap your packets with 2 layers of foil.

Bake in your oven at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes (ours only took 45 minutes), or grill or place on a campfire for 15-30 minutes, flipping once. Open your foil packet, and you can eat right out of the packet – no need for cleaning plates!  I have no “after” pictures for you, because the after shots looked a lot like the before shot… but I can tell you that these things are delicious!  The boys each ate everything that they put in their own packets, and I scarfed mine up quickly, too!  We will be having these again soon.

What were/are your favorite camping meals (besides the s’mores, of course!)?

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