EAT ME, Valentine’s Day!

You can’t eat these though.  Actually, you probably could eat felt.  But I don’t advise it.  I imagine it is very bland.

Grandma’s too old for sweets but these shouldn’t be too sweet for her.  I just wish I could find real chocolates and candies that looked like these for myself.

But I got the Valentine’s Day crafting and gift buying finished way before V-day!
Woo Hoo!  I’m done!   Thanks to the Dollar Tree for the one buck heart shaped box, and thanks always to JoAnn’s for continuing to bring the felt.

Break time.  Don’t be expecting any other holiday crafts to be completed in a punctual fashion. This was a complete fluke.  I’ll be trying to whip up some shamrocks on St. Patrick’s Day morning, I am sure.

crafting ROCKS!

We like to rock over here.  That is, if rock includes a little house and electro.  I had seen felt rocks a gazillion times and wanted them.  So I started with something simple, felt stuffed with rice.  They actually ended up a little bean baggie, rather than like a cool rock.

Then I started with wool roving.  The first time I tried this was with a needle.  I tried to needle felt them until I had learned about wet felting.  Duh.  Waaaaaaay easier with water.   The tutorial I used is from American Felt and Craft.   Their rocks looks way more firm, mine look a little loose.  Perhaps I need to roll them around a bit more.   Don’t get me wrong, I love wool felt, but something about it constantly makes me think I’m crafting with a hair ball.

And I just cant seem get over this whole melting crayons thing.  I had seen the crayon rocks at the store and online.  I know what you are thinking!  ”God, is this chick bored or something?  Get a job, woman!”  I have one, really, I work a couple days part time and the boy even goes to day school.  I, however, have this crazy thing where I must try to make EVERYTHING, so here’s how it turned out.

WARNING!!            WARNING!!            DANGER ALERT!!            DANGER ALERT!!

This is not a tutorial!  Please don’t try to melt crayons into rocks if you think it will be hazardous.  I have a high pain tolerance and have finally gotten over my awkward clumsy phase.  It took a long time, though.

First, I didn’t melt the crayons all the way, but they are not easy to mold.  Somehow I assumed that maybe I could mold them in my bare hands a little like play doh.

Umm, no.   But using 2 little spoons assisted greatly in the shaping, kinda egg-like.

Plus, this is not a quick craft.  And sadly lasted way past naptime.  After getting them to a decent shape, I threw them in the freezer for a bit to get them cooled all the way through, but really, you’re never gonna get them smooth like a stone.

They’re kinda crackly.

Not to be confused with actual crack.

While they work great and don’t have that wax separation that happens with the disks, they can shed some tiny little crayon crumbs.  But they are solid and won’t break apart.

The boy doesn’t seem to dig them any more than regular crayons.

But I think he likes holding them more than coloring with them.  And the cupcake pan did not survive the endeavor.  It is on it’s way to recycling heaven.

My final verdict:  if you must have them, mass produced sets are probably going to be your best bet.

Happy New Year GIVEAWAY!

I know it’s cheesy, but last year on New Year’s is when I first started blogging and everyone does a giveaway on their bloggerversary so I thought I should too.    And what better way to celebrate than with a felt cake.

No rules or anything, just leave a comment and on Monday, January 25th, I will draw a name and that person will take the cake.  Literally!

I had read somewhere that in Feng Shui oranges are a sign or prosperity so that’s what I was going with as far as the decoration.

But mostly, I really wanted to note the craft highlight of the last year, doing a handmade
Pay It Forward.  It’s really a wonderful way to meet people  and also a great way to improve your craft skills while doing something nice for someone.  If you have not done one, I highly recommend it.

And over the past months, I have been looking for inspiration by searching for other handmade PIFs that people have done but haven’t actually had any luck finding many.

So, I decided to start a flickr pool especially for handmade pay it forwards to showcase the lovely work that people have done out the kindness of their hearts.   If you or someone you know has made items for a handmade Pay It Forward, please join the group and add photos as encouragement for more people:

Craft it Forward

Thanks everyone and have a wonderful and prosperious and crafty 2010!

…… .  .   .    .     .      .

And the winner is:

that’s you:

Miss Vittoria!

Thank you everyone for playing and many happy wishes for a great year for all!

crafting through the snow

Oh, possibly the final craft of 2009.

The holidays are over and for some reason I felt the need to jump on the owl bandwagon.  The only appropriate spot for this guy (or girl, I’m not sure) was on the dried out tree.  Oops, guess I should have watered it more.  It’s on it’s way out anyway.

Have a wonderful New Years and 2010!

I once thought crafting would only get easier

Alas, sadly, it hasn’t.   The things I want to make are endless and I assumed once the boy gets bigger, he can give me ideas on stuff to make.   Take the birthday crown, for example.  I had planned on making a new one every year with things he likes.  But, he’s still too little to art direct me and he likes EVERYTHING.  Fruit, animals, playgrounds, trains, cars, you name it.   I was left to decide what went on the crown so here it is: Robot, airplane, elephant, lion and monkey.

And he still pulled off wearing it throughout the day.

Score.

Now for the fail:
This last recent visit to Canada, in addition to visiting friends & family, was to finally be a successful Toy Society drop.   The ninjas have yet to be heard from.

And if you haven’t already made Elsie Marley’s (what I call “doomed”) gingerbread man, you must.   It’s super cute and a quick quick sew.
I had it all planned out, I even went to a craft show at a community center.  It was going to be perfect, a crafty person or kid was sure find it, it was packed with ‘em!   But, that was the problem, I had no chance of leaving it behind without being spotted and since it rained the whole time I was there, other spontaneous drop locations were also ruled out.  I lugged this thing all the way over the border only to bring it right back.
Oh well.   Grandma’s gonna love this little guy for Christmas and I’ll have more chances for a drop again in the future.
This crafting things needs to get easier, cause with part time work and the holidays, I want to sleep, cook, and dare I say, clean the house.
I’ve also flaked on knitting.  Perhaps a knitting group is in my future.
Happy Holidays!

Does this count as clothes making?

And before you respond, I already know that the answer is no.   But, I needed to attempt it some time and I figured no better time than Halloween.  What?  What kind of cheapskate mom wouldn’t buy her kid a Star Wars costume?   Well, the fleece was only $5.

So, here’s how you DON’T make a baby jedi youngling outfit:

First, you start off with a slice of your husband’s pant leg.   This was in the goodwill pile.  Cut up the middle a little, turn inside out and then sew.

Now, try your luck with an elastic waistband.

Not too pretty, but it does the trick.  The elastic was intended to go completely around the waist and would have, if I had measured it correctly.

Then go look at your bath robe hanging in the bathroom and try to eye ball the pattern on how that was made.   Attempt to size it correctly using one of the boy’s shirts (those jedi robes are a little baggy) and then re-pin and sew up the back cause you made it too large.

Oh, and what happened here with the lining around the neck?

Guess I should have used one long strip in the first place.

And check this out:

That’s some quality sewing going on here.   You can’t fake that kind of unevenness.  That one’s definitely not the sewing machine’s fault.

Next, get toddler to stand still for a moment, or better yet, try to measure on the boy while he’s napping.  Pin some more and cinch where needed with more crooked hand stitching.

And in the end, use some more darker fabric to make a tie belt, safety pin the pants and robe. And here you go:

The half-assed handmade costume.

Now if only I could have used a hot glue gun, this would be totally badass.   I’ve also been known to bust out the stapler to fix broken seams.
Thank god that robe covers everything.

And lastly, go to temporary Halloween store that popped up in town last month and buy genuine Star Wars brand light sabre for $9.

As Halloween is the time where you can be anything you want, this year I am going as a seamstress.  Unbelievably, though.

Project Runway, here I come.  NOT!

dressin’ up the hand-me-downs

Everyone I know does the same thing I do.  Take the kid’s old clothes to resell to get new gently used clothes for their kids.  It’s brilliant and inexpensive.  But then again, there are some clothes that well, the person who works at the resale store politely says “no, thanks.”  Or there’s that stain on it and  you can’t even try to bring it in.

So we pass those lightly trashed items along for other little kids to trash some more.  And that’s where these come into play:

These guys have been loved by other kids and passed to me.  This shot doesn’t capture the stains.  And I already started trying to figure out something with the light blue one, there.

Now you can find dozens of etsy sellers, european kids designers, who will offer up cool designs stitched to a shirt with felt.

35 Euros for a shirt with a felt character on it!  That $51.91, not including shipping from Europe.

Whatever.  Here:

And although we cancelled cable.  The boy gets his weekly Yo Gabba Gabba! fix via the internet.

Mama had to whip up a Muno shirt for the little dancin’ boy:

And for this one with it’s zig zag shaped stain (?) the best option seemed to be our little green gecko friend here:

Hand-me-down shirt, free.  Felt, I don’t know, like a quarter each square.

The only problem now is that I need more old clothes that I will let him run around and get dirty in.

I really don’t want him to trash these shirts now.  And hey, maybe the resale store might even take these from me for trade.  I’m not keeping my hopes up.