A place to share my love of making and trying new things.
26 Apr 2013 29 Comments
in Crafts, Embroidery Tags: sashiko
This is my first experience with Sashiko. I found it relaxing and fun.
Sashiko is a type of embroidery stitching from Japan. It uses a running stitch. In 2011 I took a Sashiko class at the City Quilter in Manhattan. At that time I purchased a kit and started this piece. I completed the Sashiko stitching shortly after the class. But I did not sew it into a pillow until yesterday. One of the great results of having a blog is that it encourages me to complete projects.
19 Apr 2013 19 Comments
in Crafts Tags: DIY, tissue box challenge
When my 8 year old nephew and I spent the day together recently, we created a craft for JDaniel4′s Mom: 3rd Annual Tissue Box Challenge 2013. The challenge was to “decorate or build a tissue box(es) with or for your children”.
Our project is basic but it was a great Aunt/Nephew activity and it was fun to work together in my craft room. We brainstormed ideas. I drew the circles, he did most of the coloring. Together we attached the panels.
View of 3 and 2
View of 6 and 4
05 Apr 2013 17 Comments
in Crafts, Food, Party Planning Tags: around the world party, italy party, mexico party, thailand party
I hosted an Around the World birthday party for my husband’s birthday. I invited his family and friends. My husband picked the countries based on the food he wanted to eat. Our countries were: Mexico, Italy, and Thailand.
Decorations:
I made a Happy Birthday banner using Happy Birthday in Spanish, Italian, and Thai. I also included the country flag and earth. For the place settings I included something from each country – individual pinatas (Mexico), customized drink cups (Italy), and elephant napkin rings (Thailand).
Mexico section of Birthday Banner
The pinatas were fun to make but VERY time consuming. We made 14 for the party. I wanted something different than candy so we filled the pinatas with individual packs of peanuts (10), and snack bags of pistachios (4). We put the trap door in the back of the pinata. These were a hit at the party!
Pinatas
For the custom Salute cup, I used the country shape of Italy, put the words Salute on top and created one for each of the party participants.
Italy Cup
I used an applique pattern for the elephant, re-sized it to be smaller, and made a page to print out on card stock. I then cut them out and glued to paper for the ring. I left the trunk of the elephant not glued. I made napkin bundles that included plastic ware and used the napkin ring to hold it together. I sealed the ring with a piece of clear tape.
Place Setting
Food:
Italy
Thailand
Mexico
Other
Drinks
Italy and Mexico Cheese and Crackers
Chex Mix in Paper Cones
Desserts:
Earth Cupcakes
27 Mar 2013 18 Comments
in Crafts Tags: easter, egg decorating, quilling
Keeping with tradition, once again my niece (14 years) and I used a different technique to decorate eggs in blue and white for Easter. This year we quilled paper and glued it on the eggs with tacky glue. My niece painted the eggs blue this year. (We dyed them blue the other two years).
A few years ago, I gave my niece the Klutz Twirled Paper book for a birthday gift. She loves quilling. We decided to create quilled pieces for the eggs. It was my first time quilling so she taught me how to do it. We used some of the patterns and directions from this page by Chica and Jo.
White Cross
Blue Bunny
White Duck
Blue Flower with Stem
Round Blue Flower
White Flower with Stem
Linking to:
21 Mar 2013 11 Comments
in Crafts Tags: food, tea, Trivia Game
I am part of a small women’s group. We get together at each others homes for some type of activity. Last month our get together was a tea party. The hostess did an amazing job with the food and table setting. I wish that I had taken photos.
When I asked what I could bring to the tea party, the hostess suggested a tea game. I enjoyed doing the research and making of this game. I did not paraphrase every card. I included a link to the website where I found the information and/or the question.
Disclaimer: I do not guarantee the accuracy of the trivia.
See the Tea Trivia Game if you want to use my cards. My printer does not handle card stock well. I found it easier to print separately and glue the cards together.
The trivia is not equal in difficulty. So there is an element of luck as well as knowledge for winning the game. But for our party, it was just fun to learn about tea. We were not competitive.
How to Make the Game:
How to Play the Game:
Linking to: The Creative HomeAcre Hop!
15 Mar 2013 16 Comments
in Crafts Tags: card, homemade, St. Patrick's day
For St. Patrick’s Day this year I made cards for my 2 nieces. Both cards are the same except for the recipients name. This one of course is Ella’s. I am not sure if the idea of a custom heritage card is unique. I refused to google it when I came up with the concept. I wanted my card to be original.
I can see many possibilities for heritage cards. This one shows emigration by ship from Ireland to the United States in 1936.
The family tree (far left of the card) shows the recipient at the bottom and each branch holds woman’s names. My card has the names of my niece’s Mother, Grandmother, Great Grandmother, Great-Great Grandmother, and Great-Great-Great Grandmother. I probably can go at least one more branch on the tree but I need to ask my relatives in Ireland and I did not have time to get an answer before I had to get this card in the mail.
Note: There is a lot of artistic freedom in the geography drawing on this card.
Update: My nieces are 8 and 10. After receiving these cards they had many questions about family history. I am glad that this card helped create a discussion about our family.
Linking to: The Creative HomeAcre Hop!
05 Mar 2013 15 Comments
in Crafts, Embroidery Tags: how to make an embroidery floss organizer, Shrinky dink, tutorial
I was inspired by this and my love of playing with shrinky dinks to create this project. I used a sheet of white shrink film. I had it left over from an angel place card/ornament project my niece and I made several years ago.
This was an easy project with cute results.
Supplies:
Step 1: Use a permanent marker to draw your image and holes for embroidery floss on a piece of shrink film.
Step 2: Use an exacto or craft knife to cut-out holes for embroidery floss.
Step 3: Use scissors to cute around shape.
Step 4: Put shape to be shrunk on a cookie sheet between two pieces of parchment paper.
Step 5: Bake in a 335 degree oven for about 2 – 3 minutes. The shape will curl up and then become flat again. When the shape is flat, it is done. (Follow directions that come with shrink plastic)
Completed Floss Organizer
Linking to:
13 Feb 2013 20 Comments
in Crafts Tags: hand stitched, Valentine's Day Card
I stitched these simple cards for Valentine’s Day this year. There is something very satisfying about stitching on paper. I prefer fabric but I can see myself making more paper stitched cards in the future.
Basically I followed this tutorial for stitching on paper but I did not tape my template on the card (I carefully held it on while punching with a pushpin).
For my first card (not pictured) I drew hearts freehand. I thought that I would like the slightly off, homemade look. I did not like it. For the two cards pictured above I used cookie cutters. I have a huge supply of Valentine’s Day cookie cutters. My lips cutter did not make the photo. I have a broken cupid (see photo below).
My Heart / Valentine’s Day Cookie Cutters
07 Jan 2013 21 Comments
in Crafts Tags: DIY, farm themed quiet book, homemade, quiet book
My 14 year old niece, my husband and I made quiet books as Christmas gifts for our 2 youngest cousins/nephews (in different families). We designed and created two identical books. One book has a blue cover, the other red. We mostly followed directions from Serving Pink Lemonade. The books are put together sightly different (tied ribbon on the outside).
The pages are made from thick non-fusible Pellon. We used stiff felt for all pieces. My niece used fabric paint for the details. We printed the text on printable fabric sheets and ironed them onto the pages.
The recipients Grandparents and Uncle manage a dairy farm. We designed six pages, two pages to represent each relative.
The making of these books was really a family affair. I am very organized and seldom lose anything but I lost my sewing machine cords. The day before the gift exchange I still could not find them. I went to my Grandma-in-law’s house to use her sewing machine. It was so helpful and fun to get her assistance to sew up the pages and covers.
My niece designed this page. The blue bag of sugar and three other different colored rectangles are in the cupboards. They are attached by Velcro and can be moved.
My husband and I designed this page.
My niece designed this page. The Grandpa loves ice cream.
My niece designed this page. The pail and bottle can be used to feed the calves. My nephews loved this!
My husband and I modified this page from Imagine Our Life. We did not use the templates provided but looked at the image and made our own. We customized the dump truck for the farm and added bales of hay. This was another popular page with the nephews.
Creating these quiet books was a fun project but a TON of work! Designing the pages and templates, gathering supplies, and cutting out the pieces took the most time. Sewing the pages and cover and then assembling the pages took less time.
Now I can check off another item from my craft bucket list.
21 Nov 2012 7 Comments
in Crafts Tags: corn and pumpkin arrangement, easy fall craft, thanksgiving centerpiece, thanksgiving craft
My garden club has a tradition of making 36 arrangements for the Thanksgiving meal at our County Skilled Nursing Facility.
The design and assembly of the arrangements was a group effort. A garden club member came up with the concept of dried corn and jack-be-little pumpkins stacked in a dish. Another member provided small metal dishes and the homespun fabric for the ribbon. I purchased the miniature pumpkins and Indian corn. My husband cut the corn. My 8 year old nephew watched the process wearing safety glasses. Sometimes corn kernels flew through the air. He loved it!
Completed centerpieces
During our garden club meeting, members prepared the ribbon, tied ribbon to the corn pieces, hot glued the corn to the metal dishes, and hot glued the pumpkins on top of the corn.
If you use this arrangement for a family meal, you could put candy or nuts in the dish.
Note: Make sure that your corn pieces are thick enough for the miniature pumpkin to balance on the corn.
Pumpkins packed for delivery
10 Nov 2012 12 Comments
in Crafts
My garden club district held a flower show during their semi-annual meeting. I am glad that I entered. It was a great experience. I made the above three brooches and picked the one to submit in the parking lot of the flower show.
I know that my brooches are very simple. My design aesthetic tends to be simple. So in hindsight a typical brooch is not suited to my aesthetic. I should have pushed myself out of my comfort zone. But I like my brooches and I did not enter to win. I entered for the experience. I do not have design experience so my goal was to not be disqualified. There are many ways an entry into a flower show can be disqualified before the judge sees it. But I followed the rules and my entry was submitted for judging.
I signed up to clerk during the flower show. Clerks assist the judges by holding up or moving the item to be judged. Clerks also attach ribbons and do other tasks as necessary. I could not clerk for judges that were judging my entry but the judges I was assigned happened to be close to the judges evaluating the brooches. I was able to hear a little and watch in a mirror. I could see in a mirror that they spent a long time judging but did not spend time looking at mine. They focused on the other three.
My entry was in the Artistic Crafts section, Class 1 “Sparkling Friends”. I consulted the contact for the flower show and was told that my brooch did not need to be sparkling. But the judges focused on the word “sparkling” during their review.
Some things I was able to hear the judges say (I am assuming that it was about my brooch).
Ribbon and Comment Card
Some comments and observations from attendees of the flower show.
First place brooch
Second place brooch
Third place brooch
Honorable mention brooch
31 Oct 2012 2 Comments
in Crafts
This is some of what we will be handing out to trick-or-treaters this year. Typically we get about 250 kids come to our door seeking treats. I like to give something special to the first 25 trick-or-treaters. This year my Mom and I made and filled candy corn bags. The tutorial was great but it did take us quite a bit longer to make the bags than stated in the tutorial.
Felt Candy Corn Bags
