General Craftiness

This was a joint project with my husband for Halloween.

I love fall. It is my favorite time of year and it is also the start of decorating for the holidays! No offense to Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day, but there is only so much decorating you can do for those. Halloween is coming and here is an easy way to get ready for it.

What You’ll Need:

• Wool-Ease Yarn from Lion Brand or a Super Bulky weight yarn in your favorite Halloween colors (I only used 1/2 skein of black and orange and just a little of the cream)
• Styrofoam wreath form
• Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
• Pins

This really couldn’t be easier, you just start putting a little glue on the wreath to get the yarn started and then you just start wrapping. Be sure you covering up the white of the Styrofoam. You can measure out your wreath to be sure you get equal stripes if you want, but I just eyeballed it.

Once the wreath is done, you can start on the rosettes. These are just made by wrapping the yarn around itself. On a flat surface start wrapping the yarn with one hand while you hold the center down flat with the other. Make some different sizes to make it look interesting. Once I had the rosettes the right size, I use pins to hold the yarn in place and then used the glue gun to make a flower shape that would catch yarn. Let is dry for 10 – 30 minutes and then remove the pins.

When your rosettes are done, start arranging them on your wreath!

 Spooky spooky!

More fun with glue guns!

I’m definitely on a kick with flowers and glue guns. This project is inspired by the blog called Matsutake that I discovered through Pinterest. I was frankly a little surprised how great these turned out looking considering they were just discarded t-shirts a few minutes prior. These are quick and can be used in so many ways as accessories like glued on headbands or made into bib necklaces, attached to belts or used as a brooch, the list goes on and on. So, find an old t-shirt and let’s get cracking.

What You’ll Need:

• Old t-shirt
• Needle and thread or you can use your sewing machine
• Glue gun (You can also sew these and I would recommend that if this is something you every want to wash or permanently attach to clothing.)

First start with cutting up your t-shirt into strips. To make the rose I’m showing here I used one strip that was 3 inches wide and about 48 inches long. If your t-shirt isn’t that wide, you can cut shorter strips and just use more of them in your final product. You can also make them more narrow if you want a shorter rose. It really just depends on where you want to use your final product and you can make several from one t-shirt so you can always experiment to get the size you like.

Once your strip is cut, you’ll need to stitch down the center using a long width stitch. On a sewing machine, you can adjust the width of your stitch and I used a size 5.0. If you’re hand sewing, you use a running stitch or a basting stitch and just make wide stitches.  I all of this sounds like gibberish to you, just make wide stitches, that is all and leave plenty of thread at the beginning and the end of your strip since you will be using that thread to pull to make gathers.

Speaking of gathering, once your strips are sewn, pull on the thread on either side of your strip. If you used your machine, then pull on one thread on each side, I used the bottom thread. The fabric should cinch up and evenly space out your gathers as you go.

Once the gathering is done, fold the strip in half width-wise and start to roll of the strip. Place glue or use a needle and thread to secure the fabric as you continue rolling it up.  At the end of the strip you can attch it to the bottom or tuck it into secure it.

All done!

Note:

If all the sewing is a bit much for you, you can just fold up the strip width-wise after you cut it out and roll it up the same way as the other rose. You just won’t have the gathering and your rose will be much tighter.

This is really the simplest thing to make and just looks lovely. I’ve seen a few of these bib necklaces on Pinterest and elsewhere and decided to use some of the same methods from the feathered headband to make one for myself.

The trickiest part of this is finding the right flowers or other notions for the necklace. You can try artificial flowers from the craft store, but just be sure that the bottoms are flat or flat-ish so they will be easily glued to your base. For this, I use flowers more commonly used in scrapbooking made from a company called Prima and purchased on scrapbook.com. When I got these in the mail, I was less than thrilled. They look good in pictures, but close up you can see all of the glue and the thought immediately that came to me, “I can make these myself.” Trust me, next time I will but, they are here and I paid for them, so might as well use them.

What You’ll Need:

• Hot glue gun
• Felt (I used wool felt since this would be next to my skin, but craft felt will do)
• Flowers, notions
• Coordinating Ribbon (Amount depends on how long you want the necklace to hang. Start with at least 24 inches.)

Begin by arranging your flowers and/or notions on the felt in a crescent shape until you like your composition. You probably don’t want to go more than 6 inches wide and 4 inches high. When you’re done with that, trace along your flowers on the felt to give yourself a guide when cutting.

Cut out your felt and cut off a piece of ribbon based on how long you want your necklace to hang, plus extra for tying a bow at the end. Cut your ribbon in half. Glue the ends of your ribbon to the ends of your felt. This would be a good time to hold it up to your neck to see if you like the size and how it hangs.

When you’re ready it is time to start gluing on the flowers. I started at the ends to be sure that I was covering up the ribbon and worked inwards. You want to glue down the petals as you go so the felt won’t show through.

Once all the flowers are glued down, trim the felt as close to the glued flowers as you can so that the felt no longer seen.

As soon as all your trimming is done, so are you!

With all of the hub bub with the Royal Wedding, Easter and the Kentucky Derby, hats, fascinators and feathers are definitely in the air. I guess I’m not a slave to fashion because I didn’t even really notice the trend until recently, but it looks like girls have been putting feathers in their hair with headbands and clips for quite a while (not counting Marie Antoinette of course). There are a lot of entries on Etsy and even more videos on YouTube describing how to make your own. Even Martha has one. I took a look at a few of them and went to my local Hobby Lobby to come up with some feathered headbands for myself.

First, I will say I think the best video describing how to make them comes from Threadbanger. They describe the trend and attribute it to Kenley from Project Runway. Did you know she was arrested and sent to jail for two days for throwing a cat and a laptop at her boyfriend? Seriously. See for yourself.

To the video:

And Martha’s had some good points as well: Fashion Headband

I would take two things from Martha’s segment on this, use Fabric – Tac not hot glue to create your pad because Fabric-Tac is much more flexible and the hot glue hardens, well hard.  I would also recommend using used Avery label paper as your working area because that glue gets everywhere. I’m not sure I would use a feather duster either, but go for it if you find one you like. I would use Threadbanger’s tip of gluing the feathers on felt. You can use craft felt for this and that is what I did and I prefer it to Martha’s method of just using the glue as a backing.

At Hobby Lobby I found pre-made feather pads for $4 and they came in variations of black. I also found bags of feathers some assorted, some not for $2 a bag. I think it is safe to think you’ll get one pad out of one bag since you’ll get some unusable feathers in the bag (broken, bent, too small, etc.). I also picked up some buttons and headbands.

Let’s get to it already.

What You’ll Need:

• Feathers (either a pad or bag)
• Headband ( I got mine in a pack of three from Target)
• Fabric-Tac
• Hot glue gun
• Craft felt (black or a coordinating color to your feathers)Note: If you’re using the pad, you won’t need the felt.
• Optional: Buttons or sequins or artificial flowers for the base of the headband.

If you’re using a pre-made pad, just hot glue it on your headband or clip and add a button or flower and you are good to go! See how easy?

If you’re making your own pad, you have a few more steps. Make 2 teardrop shapes with your felt about 6 inches tall and 4 inches wide. You may not need the second one, it depends on how badly the glue soaks through the felt. You’ll attach the second one later, so put it aside for now. The first one will be your base and can always be trimmed smaller later if you want.

Open up your bag of feathers and sort them by size. This will make the gluing process go mush faster.

Put down the used Avery label paper and begin gluing with Fabric-Tac. (I have a small paper below the felt in this picture that you can’t see.)Be sure to do this in a well ventilated space because this glue SMELLS. I start with the glue at the top or the widest part and start layering the feathers from the top down. You don’t want any glimpses of the felt underneath. The glue may start soaking through to the back of the felt, so be sure you have the paper below it.

Once you’ve got it all glued down, walk away and leave it overnight.  

The next day, take a look at your masterpiece and add glue to anything that doesn’t seem completely attached and try out it against your headband or clip to see if it the size you want. If the back is sticky because the glue seeped through, glue that second felt piece you cut out on top. You don’t want your hair sticking to your headband.

Let it dry 2 – 4 hours (it doesn’t need as much time since there isn’t as much glue involved).

When your pad is ready to go, fire up your hot glue gun and attach the pad to your preferred hair accessory and add a button (or whatever you prefer). You can put the headband in a tall glass to let it dry thoroughly.

Once the hot glue has set, you’re done! You look fab darling!

I originally saw felted Peeps in a Craftzine article and thought they were just too cute. I’m not a Peeps fan myself, in fact my husband wants to explode the ones I bought like another article in Make. The felted ones will survive though and are super easy to make.

You will need:

• 2 ounces of roving (You can use less, but this is the average amount roving comes in for felting. This will be enough for at least 6 peeps depending on size of course)
• Small amount of brown roving or brown marker
• Needle felting needle, size 38
• Foam

Step One:

Divide the piece of roving in quarters and take the piece and it wrap it completely around your index finger. Remove from your finger and it should form a circle. You can compare the size  to a real Peep if you have one handy if you want to go for an accurate size. You do want it to be a little bigger since the felting will reduce the size.  Start felting with your needle along the sides and in the center of the roving.

Step Two:

Repeat. The smallest of the two circles can be the head of your Peep and you can make it more of an oval shape by felting the sides a little more.

Step Three:

Attach the circles. Felt at the join until it is secure. You can add some more roving and continue felting if you want to hide the seam between the two circles.

Step Four:

Create the ears. Take another piece of roving and wrap it around your index and your middle fingers together. You should have a more oval shape and begin felting again.

Step Five:

Attach the ear. You can attach the ear along the join until it is secure.

Step Six:

Repeat steps four and five. Measure against your real Peep for accurate sizing.

Step Seven:

Adding the eyes and nose. You can use a brown marker to draw on the dots for the eyes and nose, but I used the smallest amount of brown roving (and I do mean small – nano small) and rub it between your hands to make small little balls. Using your needle, attach them to the face of your bunny.

Happy Spring!

I began doing embroidery in my teens and it is something I’ve just recently started going back to. There are so many cool patterns out now and some of the coolest are coming from Sublime Stitching. This small company out Austin is bringing embroidery back in a big way with their irreverent patterns and kitschy style. As they say, “This ain’t your gramma’s embroidery.”

I started on the Krazy Kitchen kit embroidered on a tea towel and the whole thing is very easy to use. You cut out the patterns, arrange them and iron it and embroidery long the imprinted design. They also offer some pointers and beginning instruction to get you started. They have over 50 different design collections to choose from.

If you haven’t embroidered in years or ever, then give Sublime Stitching a try. They have a kit you can buy ($20 – $30) that will get you started if you need the supplies including the floss, loop, needle and scissors.

As the needle felting obsession continues, I’ve bought a couple of the kits from Woolpets and I love them. The kit comes with all of the wool and notions you will need including very thorough instructions with pictures that guide you every step of the way. If this is the first thing you have felted, you will need to get some foam or a sponge to felt against. You can get the foam at Living Felt. 

I have named my chicken “Pissy” just because she kind of looks that way to me, but I love her just the same. The trickiest part for me were her feet and I just couldn’t seem to get the wool around her leg tight enough. She kind of has duck feet. It does make it easier to stand her up though!

Woolpets has dozens of kits that feature everything from bluebirds to witches. They also have a very adorable blog. You can buy kits at the Loopy Ewe and Felt o Rama (closed until March 4 for some reason, but great otherwise). Woolpets even encourages you to recycle the container to make a bird feeder – you’ve got to love a company that thinks that way.

Video games aren’t just for kids anymore and they certainly aren’t just for socially challenged boys anymore either. One study by the Consumer Electronics Association discovered that 65 percent of women in the 25 – 34 age bracket play video games. That has led to more games for females and crafting is being incorporated into some them.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn is for the Nintendo Wii  and has gotten rave reviews and tons of awards from the gaming community. In this Kirby adventure, Kirby is turned into yarn and travels through a beautiful land filled with buttons, fabric and stitches to save the day. The graphics on this game are crazy good. Check out the Nintendo site for videos and extras.

Here is a review of “the cutest game around”.

Crafting Mama is for the Nintendo DS and features Mama trying out 40 different types of crafts. The Mama franchise started out in the kitchen with Cooking Mama and features the same sort of game play here with lots of “mini game” type levels as you work your way through the game. It’s gotten some good reviews on Amazon as well.

I recently took a class on needle felting and it is quickly becoming a new obsession of mine. What I love best about it is that there is no special skill required and someone can start out doing something pretty complicated in the beginning and it gives you instant gratification. All you have to know how to do is poke and that is something we all learned early on. It came in real handy in elementary school.

This project is on the very basic end of the scale, but it will start you on your own obsession with wool and needles.

You Will Need:

Foam or a sponge
*Felting needle (size 38 preferably, but it doesn’t really matter here)
Red corriedale wool roving (most craft stores carry wool roving in multi-color packs)
Heart cookie cutter
Embroidery thread and needle if you want to embellish

*These you may not find in a craft store. I bought mine from Living Felt.

To begin, place the cookie cutter on your foam and fill the cookie cutter with pieces of the red wool. The using one needle or if you have a needle holder that can hold more use that to start punching down the wool in the cookie cutter. I’ve found that using the needle holder with more needles helps me to get the felting started easier and then I use a single needle for finishing, but use whatever you have since both will work fine. Be sure to poke around the shape evenly, excessive poking in one area will make your shape uneven.

Once the wool starts to come together at the bottom, remove the cookie cutter and turn the wool over. If you don’t move the wool once in awhile it will start to adhere to your foam.

Keep turning and poking until the heart feels firm and you are no longer able to pull off any of the wool. If you have any thin or uneven spots, just add more wool and keep poking. You can also run the heart under some hot water to firm it up or to do any extra shaping.

Once complete, you can embellish anyway you like, but I chose to use some embroidery to personalize. If you don’t want the back of the embroidery work to show, put the shape back into the cookie cutter and add some wool to cover up the back of your work and poke a few times until your threads are hidden.

You can hot glue a pin and magnet or just leave them as is. Just use your imagination and get to poking! It’s therapeutic!

Another great project to do for Valentine’s Day or for any winter day really are the Crayon Hearts from Martha Stewart. I did not do such a great job with mine, I was a little to heavy handed with the crayon wax, but they do cheer up the room when it is a all gray and bleak outside. I got lucky on the day of these pictures and the sun came out.

When I was a child,  I ended up in the hospital for Valentine’s Day a few times and it turned me against the holiday. I had my tonsils and my appendix taken out on Valentine’s day (different years and operations) and was admitted for a kidney infection once, too. Add to that all of the sadness and the pressure that can come when you’re alone on that particular day, I started celebrating another holiday – Groundhog Day.

Groundhog Day seemed perfect because there were no gifts to buy, no expectations, no rituals to partake in other than watching the video to see if Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, but at the same time it’s quirkiness and hope for a quick end to the bitter winter makes the day special.  I’ve always gone into Groundhog Day feeling like nothing bad is going to happen on this day, this day of all days is going to be a good one and it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. So even if you think Groundhog Day is silly and things might seem a little bleak weather-wise and/or economy-wise, try thinking that this is going to be an excellent day full of fun and laughter and it will come true for you, too. And after all, isn’t that the best kind of holiday?

Here are some links to stuff to help you celebrate:

• Groundhog Game
• Groundhog Day Cookie Recipe
• Groundhog Day Activities
• Stuff to Buy
• Groundhog Day Children’s Books
• More activities

There have been paint your own pottery stores for years, but a new trend is to bring some wine and friends to a party atmosphere where you actually paint on canvas. There are a few of these in my neighborhood and they are growing like weeds, so if you don’t have one near you now, I’m sure you will soon. Maybe you should open one of your own!

A friend and I recently visited Pinot’s Palette in Houston and attended the Pet Portrait class where you send in a photo of your pet and they enlarge it and gray it out and paste in a canvas you paint it in like paint by numbers.

The class is led by real artists that can help you out when you get in trouble and offer friendly advice on color choices and techniques to try. The goal is for you to love your painting, so they can offer as much or as little help as you require. All levels of skill are encouraged to participate. The wine you can bring also helps you to let your inner Picasso thrive.

They have lots of different kinds of classes as well that can help you to create your masterpieces based on famous, and some not so famous, works of art. It’s a great idea for a group of friends or family. I’ve also spotted lots of couples on dates there as well.

Some Other Paint & Wine Places (maybe near you):

• Painting with a Twist Lots of locations in Houston, Louisiana, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee and others
• Wine and Design Raleigh, NC(warning this site plays music – turn your sound off)
• Marmalade Skies Art Studio
• Vino & Vango (Portland, OR)
• Bottles & Brushes (Chicago, IL)
• Paint Lab (Santa Monica, CA)
• Brushes & Bottles (Miami, FL)

A tutorial from artist Abby Glassenberg was featured on Craft recently and it is an excellent guide for designing and making your own stuffed toys. There are six posts in the series so far from how to design your pattern to how to turn the fabric right side out after sewing. Check it out.

While She Naps Site

If you’re not up for making your own, you can buy one at the While She Naps Etsy store.

There are some films that focus on the craft movement and I want to encourage you to see them if you can.

The first is Handmade Nation that will be showing in Houston, TX on  Saturday, January 22, 2011.
Reception, 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Film Screening, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. at Lawndale Art Center, 4912 Main Street
See details.

“Handmade Nationis a documentary about the new wave of art, craft and design that is capturing the attention of the nation. Director, author, artist and curator Faythe Levine traveled to 15 cities and covered more than 19,000 miles to interview artists, crafters, makers, curators and community members for her feature film debut.”

For more information and to find out about future screenings see Handmade Nation Movie.

Another documentary film is by Australian director Anna Brownfield and it’s called Making It Handmade. While I didn’t find any preview clips from the film, you can buy it.

Happy New Year! What better way to start the new year than with a clean craft like soap making? Melt and pour soap making is one of the easiest and most satisfying crafts you can try. You can personalize the soap using whatever combination of oils and fragrances your prefer and they make great gifts at a fraction of the cost to buy them elsewhere. Melt and pour bases are also easy to use and you don’t have to worry about lye and putting your hazmat suit on to get your craft on. Let’s get started.

All of the supplies for this I purchased at Hobby Lobby and there are many more options available online. One site that has a lot of variety is Bramble Berry and it has  great tutorials as well.

You’ll need a melt and pour soap base (these come in many varieties from glycerin, Shea butter, olive oil and more), fragrance or essential oil, dye and molds to get started. Everything pictured here cost around $40 total and everything but the soap base can be used many, many times over.

I chose a Shea butter base to start with and cut off a few chunks and put them in a microwave safe container and microwaved for 20 seconds. Check on it and if it is not melted completely, microwave it in 10 second intervals until it is in liquid form. Be EXTREMELY careful with the hot soap base. It will be very hot and will burn you if you are not careful.

Once the soap base is melted, you can add a couple drops of dye and fragrance and stir. The amount really depends on your preference, but start out with just a couple of drops and add gradually.

Next, just pour your soap into your molds. You don’t need to prepare the molds, just be sure they are clean and dry. You can put the molds into the refrigerator for 30 minutes to speed up the drying process or just leave them out for 1 – 2 hours to dry completely. The molds should no longer feel hot or warm to the touch. 

Once the soap has hardened, just pop them out of the molds.

There you go. A quick, easy craft that is fun and very satisfying for crafters at all levels.

When we travel, we like to purchase Christmas ornaments that remind us of our many adventures. On a trip to Vermont several years ago, my husband and I bought two ornaments that smelled of cinnamon. When we were putting up the tree this year, I was surprised that these ornaments still smell wonderful after so many years. Then I thought these can’t be that hard to make. A few online searches lead me to a a few recipes which I combined and tested to form the recipe below. These take a few days to make, so be sure you give yourself plenty of time to make these before the big day. Sorry it is too late for this year, but there is always next year!

The “dough” is basically cinammon, nutmeg, school glue and applesauce. Weird combination I know, but it seems to work. These will NOT be edible. Mix it all together and it will form a ball just like regular dough. Let it sit for awhile and then knead it for a few minutes. Kneading it is really critical since it will be very crumbly without it. Once it seems like it smooth and sticking together well, roll out just like cookie dough. Keep the layer think at least 1/4 of an inch. If it is too thin, it will be more fragile. We won’t be baking these, so the size they are is the size they will stay.

Once rolled out, get out your cookie cutters and start making shapes. Use a drinking straw to make holes at the top so you can hang these later.

Place them on parchment to dry for 3 – 5 days depending on the size of your ornaments. Be sure to turn them over once a day so they can dry evenly. I used a wire rack the first time I made these, and it left black marks and indents on the ornaments, so I don’t recommend it. If the parchment sticks, you can always slightly wet the parchment and pull away gently.

Once dry, you can use paints to decorate. I used some acrylic pant and puffy paint to give it more texture like real cookies.

Pull some ribbon through the hole and tie onto your tree or onto a gift to give to friends.

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas, I wanted to incorporate my love of knitting and yarn into my decorations. For this wreath, I was inspired by a yarn wreath that has made the rounds on Craftzine and the Knitty blog created by Kristi of Life Through the Lens.

To get started, you need a wire wreath frame, Styrofoam balls (I used the sizes of 1 in., 1 1/2 in., 2 in., 2 1/2 in. and 3 inches), lots of yarn, a few ornaments and some low temperature hot glue.

To wrap each ball in yarn, I used a little hot glue to get the ballrolling. Be sure you are using low temperature glue/gun so you don’t melt the Styrofoam.

And then keep wrapping….

And wrapping….

Until all of the styrofoam is covered.

Tuck the end of the yarn into the ball or you may want to hot glue gun it down and hold with a pin for a few minutes. I did have some unravel while I was gluing everything together and the 1 inch balls are so small that gluing them is really the only way to keep the yarn tight.

This project will eat up a massive amount of yarn and towards the end, I even went out and bought some at Michael’s just to finish.

Once you have some balls in different sizes done, start gluing your balls onto the wire wreath frame. Start with the larger ones and use the smaller ones to fill in the gaps. The 1 inch balls were perfect for that. You can also add a couple of ornaments just to give it a little glitz.

Before you know it you will have a beautiful way to celebrate the holidays and your yarn addiction.