The Hair "Bow"

A couple of my dear, daughter-raising friends were looking for a cute DIY flower "bow" to kick their creativity in gear for the season. Here is what we came up in fifteen minutes with a hot glue gun and some quick thinking.

What you need:
a cute, silk flower (or paper or fabric or whatever inspires you)
a barrette and/or piece of elastic (I used some foldover elastic I had on hand)
a hot glue gun (or, if you're patient, some "snail-dry" glue)

1. Look around your house for a cute jar of pretend flowers from which you might not notice if one went missing.

2. Pop the flower off the stem and remove all center plastic pieces that hold it together.

3. Stack the flower forms on top of each other. I used two different colors of flowers and alternately layered them. Glue each piece on top of the next.

4. Look through your craft stash and select the most perfect and inspiring centerpiece. I ended up choosing buttons for my orange "bow" but for my red flower I put blings in the center. Glue them on.

5. Measure your recipient's head and cut your elastic accordingly. Overlap the ends and glue together. Glue the band to the flower as shown.

6. And then, I got a better idea. What about making a headband with interchangeable flowers? Just glue the completed flower onto a barrette and snap it onto the headband. Now you have one for each outfit. Neat huh?

By the way, I admit that I made the red one for myself. It's not just for little girls!

My Helping Hands

These little hands that help today
Will make a mess, explore and play.
Be patient with them while they're small
For hands grow big as legs grow tall.

My childhood home was like any home across the country in that the central hub was the kitchen. I have fond memories of making mini pies in foil pot pie plates with my mom after a summer afternoon picking mulberries in the park across the street, prize fish caught from the lake fried for dinner, hours of chatting over a simple breakfast bagel, Kook-Aid stained lips, screen doors, steamed up windows on Thanksgiving morning and the list goes on... For years on the wall between the two windows that overlooked my favorite tree swing in the backyard were two little plaster handprints and one small, sandy footprint. I remember marveling at how the casts seemed to shrink with each new year.

With Cam starting Kindergarten next year it has occurred to me how very fast these years are moving and just how grown up the kids are becoming. So, to capture my little helping hands I decided to take a lesson from my mom's plaster casts. You can buy handprint kits that give you the frame, mat, and materials but I was able to match my kitchen decor with some IKEA frames that I had on hand and purchasing the clay only (which was far less messy than the plaster used decades ago).

Supplies:

Crayola "Model Magic" (ok, I purchased a super huge box of it because I have no control when it comes to craft supplies and I will surely come up with something to use the rest for- one small package will do for your project)

a small hand
a rolling pin
your choice of frame and mat (I used construction paper for the background because it is all I had on hand but it will probable fade over time)
mounting material (tape or glue of some sort)

Just roll out the size and shape of dough that you want your handprint on and press those little fingers or toes into it. You will have to let the clay dry for at least 24 hours and then be sure to write the name of the person, age and date. Then just stick it to the mat and hang it up!


I think my little hands compliment my other pieces of "art" in the kitchen.


They all reflect the mood of raising children, don't you think?

Dollar Craft - Coasters Tutorial

Remember the inspiration pile from a few days back? This is project #1 from that pile. I now have some neat coasters that I can put in the craft lab for myself and visitors. This turned out to be a quick project that can be made with just a few dollars and some simple supplies.

The stuff you will need:

1. Set of cork-backed coasters ($1)
2. Permanent glue stick ($1)
3. Transparent shelf liner (like contact paper) ($1)
4. Scraps of scrapbook paper - I used a heavyweight paper that I had on hand
5. Scissors, kitchen cutting board and a razor blade or exacto knife for cutting

Step 1:
Lay the coaster out on your paper to decide how you want the design to be placed on the final piece. Outline the coaster leaving about 1/8" around it for gluing and cutting.

Step 2:
Spread the glue on the face of the coaster and then lay it down to stick it to the back of the paper. Turn it over and smooth the paper out using a cloth to avoid scratching the surface. Then turn it face down again on your cutting board surface and cut the extra edge of the paper off as close as you can to the coaster using your razor blade.

Step 3:
Now it's time to put the transparent shelf liner on the top of your coaster to make the surface wipeable. Cut the liner a bit larger than the coaster and peel back one corner. Stick the open corner down over a corner of the coaster and slowly peel back the backing. Smooth the surface again using a cloth. Then turn it over and cut the extra liner off just as you cut the paper in step 2.

Voila! Cute, functional and totally easy to customize! Make a set for yourself and one for a friend...

Back To Spring

It seemed like the perfect day today to make this little nest of peeps with the balmy 60 degree breeze streaming through the windows for the first time in months and months. You may recognize that it is a takeoff on the project in Family Fun magazine Easter edition. Cam had a great time picking up the little seed bead eyes with a pair of tweezers and gluing them into place. It turned out to be a fun craft time together and a little hand-eye-coordination exercise for him as well (ok, for me too).

I must say that I did a bit of scrambling to figure out how I would get the nest to stick together since the directions called for liquid starch and I had none. I watered down some flexible fabric glue and it seemed to do the trick. Cam's favorite part was dipping and dragging the yarn through the sticky glue while I wrapped and wrapped it around a cling wrap covered bowl to resemble the nest.


The little birdies reminded me of the Spring Peeps crochet pattern I designed a couple of years ago.

Wooly Stripes And The Tetanus Shot

Just a few weeks back I couldn't resist snagging this vibrant wool sweater from the thrift store. I wasn't sure exactly what I would do with it but knew it had potential. So, I packed it up and brought it home along with the matching sequin bracelet sitting next to it in the picture that gave a nice contrast to the wool. It sat on my cutting table awaiting its fate for nearly a month.

And then, on the day the town nearly shut down with it's frigid -18 wind chill, it was decided. Baby Chase was going to get a new hat.

I carefully cut the threads that joined the turtleneck to the bodice, separating the two pieces. This left me with the unbound loops from the last row of the knitting which I wove a piece of yarn through and cinched closed to form the top of the hat.

I took a huge gob of wonderful red wool roving that I had ordered earlier from www.yarnpunk.etsy.com and began felting a perfect pom-pom for the top. I experimented a bit with it. I haven't done tons of felting but I knew how to needle felt a ball. Then when it was a nice shape but not perfectly round (because I do so very much like perfection) and not small enough, I turned to wet felting the rest. I'm sure this next part is not conventional but it worked. I held it under warm water and squeezed it and shaped it like play-dough. I thought I'd heard about using soap too so I put a bit of laundry detergent on it and it seemed to smooth the stray fibers if nothing else. Once I had achieved the perfect, compressed sphere (don't panic now) I threw it in the dryer on medium and watched it bounce around and around. I don't know if this really made it much smaller but I was very impatient to finish the hat for the following morning and didn't think a soggy ball would fare well in the cold weather. Could you imagine that big ice chunk on the top of Chase's head?

Well, the felted ball was terrific, even if I did stab myself in the thumb and ended up with a Tetanus shot the next day. Hey, that reminds me to remind you to keep up-to-date on these shots. I have been stabbing myself for years with needles and pins but never really thought about renewing my long overdue Tetanus shot until I started using that charcoal-colored felting needle. It just looked a little scarier than the nice, shiny stainless steel needles I use to sew with. So, don't skip it.

Here is the finished project after attaching the ball with needle and thread and some hot glue (shh, don't tell!)

Cute as a button and there's still so much more I can do with the rest of the sweater! Here are some tips if you have an old turtleneck you'd like to recycle:

1. If you cannot find the thread that attaches the neck to the bodice, very carefully cut it off using a sharp pair of scissors. Be very careful not to stretch it or tug on it which will deform it and possibly make it unravel.

2. My cinching the loops worked great but there is an alternative if you're handy with the sewing machine. Simply flatten the tube (neck piece) measure the open, cut edge and mark it into four even segments. Sew from the edge of one side toward the middle stopping at the first marking. Repeat on the other side. Now fold and flatten the opening in the other direction with your stitched sides running down the middle front and middle back and remaining markings now at the edge of the tube. Sew across the opening. You should have sewn an "X" at one end of the tube which will now become the top of the hat.

3. You can put a store purchased puff, pom-pom or felted ball at the top of the hat to add character or nothing at all!

I know that you're probably thinking "Why are we talking about a winter hat when it's spring?" Well, my friend, spring may be approaching on the calendar but take a look outside. The Easter Bunny may just be making footprints in the snow this year...

Roses Are Pink

Last week I finally broke out the supplies for this little bouquet of sweet roses I've been planning for years. I've had a sketch in my purse of a kiss rose I saw in a store ages ago and am finally around to trying out my version for my mom's birthday. Made with Hershey's kisses, clear cellophane tissue paper from the dollar store, some lollipop sticks, floral tape and a shiny leaf sequin I found in my embellishment box, these roses look just perfect in last Saturday's thrift find.