Hootie Who Hat

Owls are so in right now and it seems like everywhere I go I see them.  I’ve been seeing some really cute hats and I thought I need to make my own version. I knitted a plain hat with picot edging on the bottom and then added hand embroidered felt eyes and a beak.  Little Miss loves it and my husband wants a masculine version.

It’s Officially Fall

Well, actually yesterday was the first day (autumn equinox).  I love fall, it’s my favorite season!  This morning it was cool enough for jackets and that reminded me that Little Miss needed some new leg warmers.  Little Miss wears dresses year round and legwarmers are essential for fall, pull them up when you’re cold and slouch them down when you’re warm.

I make legwarmers from adult knee socks and Target has a great selection this year. It’s so easy, just cut the foot part off of the sock and then cut the toes and heel off of the foot piece. Fold the foot piece in half, wrong sides together, align with the cut edge of the leg, and zigzag together!These are also great for babies, use you’re bodysuits year round and they make diaper changes a breeze.  Little Miss may have to share some of these with Little Man.

Have a super crafty weekend!

New/Old Idea, Fun or Cheesy?

I made these a few years ago and they have been found in the great shuffling of stuff *.  I wasn’t sure if they are fun and folksy or if they are just cheesy and a bit bright.  They are stuffed fabric forms that I have painted with acrylic paint.  It’s an interesting idea that I think I might need to explore more, the plaid is a bit loud for me now.  I think that making some Halloween characters would be more Me.  I guess the real question I’m asking is should I sell these or pack them back away into the crafts from years past box?

*Almost every time my parents come to visit they bring me a box of stuff, mostly things they have been storing for me and interesting yard sale finds and I am slowly sorting through all the boxes, bags, and totes and filing it all carefully away.

Christmas Knitting

I know that it is only September, but if you’re knitting gifts for the holidays now is peak knitting time.  I have been working on a set of washcloths for my Father-in-law.  I am trying to use up a large cone of natural colored cotton yarn that I bought for a project that has been frogged.  I think I’m going to keep making washcloths until I run out, washcloths for everyone!!!  If I find a local crafter who makes soap and I’ll be set for teacher gifts too.I will be sending him a set of three, here are the first two.  I love how the ballband pattern looks in just one color (I’ve always knit it in two), so textural and classy and the Chinese waves pattern is so pretty and so easy.  Now I just need to decide on a third pattern. I also need to start a baby gift set for a boy.  I have a selection of yarn in turquoises and chocolaty browns.  I think maybe a cocoon, a couple of hats and maybe some booties.

What gifts will you be crafting for the upcoming holiday season?

Polymer Clay Cupcakes Mini Tutorial

You know I love cupcakes and so I was super excited to try to make my own mini cupcakes.

For the tutorial you will need polymer clay, glass head pins, flat head pins, translucent liquid Scuplty (TLS), various sized wire nuts, and amazing mold putty. I am going to assume that everyone has basic knowledge of working with polymer clay and some basic tools on hand.

We will start by using the wire nuts and the amazing mold putty to make molds for the cupcake bottoms. The bottoms can be made by hand by rolling a cylinder and making vertical lines on the sides, but I wanted easy and consistent. Amazing mold putty is easy to use, although it is a bit expensive (note the $19.99 price sticker, use a coupon!!!). The molds a flexible making it easy to pop the polymer clay out without using a releasing agent, like cornstarch. Scrap clay may also be used to make molds, but it won’t be flexible and you will need to coat the inside to make the clay easy to remove.

Mix the two parts of the putty together (check the package for more precise instructions), form into a ball and push the wire nut into the putty. Wire nuts are used to secure electrical wires and can be purchased at any hardware store. The impressions I made were so precise that the writing on the bottom of the nuts can be read on the molded clay. Once the putty is cured you can mold cupcake bottoms endlessly. The wire nuts make a tapered, perfectly fluted bottom.

To make decorative stick pins mold a cupcake bottom and then insert a glass head pin through the center. You can see the yellow heads here, they will be covered with the frosting in the next step. Glass head pins are a must since these need to go into the oven to cure. To make charms add a rounded “muffin” top to the bottom and insert a flat head pin.

I made two different kinds of frosting. Piped, which is clay rolled into a “snake” and coiled up to a point and frosted with a glass bead cherry on top. To make frosting mix a small amount of polymer clay with a small amount of TLS using you fingers to really mix the two together to get a nice frosting texture. I used a mini popsicle stick to spread my frosting on my cupcakes.

I stuck my pins into my poly filled pins cushion to bake for the recommended time. I have to say the the light pink ones are my favorite, but they are all really fun. You can sand the finished pieces (I didn’t) and add a coat of sealer. I’m going to dip mine in triple thick glaze and maybe sprinkle on some glitter or micro beads, but I needed to photograph them before I did that, they are so shiny after dipping its hard to get a clear picture of them.

I’d love to see your finished cupcakes if you give this tutorial a try. Have a super crafty weekend!

Rita Raccoon and a Book Review

The Knitted Odd-bod Bunch book by Donna Wilson was a complete random/impulse purchase, a testament to store placement and appealing cover photos, I saw it and had to have it. I love the characters in the book. They are quite a quick knit and a good way to practice some more adventurous techniques like lots or increasing and decreasing, short rows, striping and intarsia without the commitment of a huge project. The photos really make this book and there is a short paragraph about each character that really brings them to life.

You should note that there are a few typos/mistakes in the book, but careful reading will easily help you catch these. Several of the characters are very similar in design, so it seemed more like 20 pattern with variation, but the styling of the book helped me over look this fact. My biggest complaint is that there is a lot of sewing, really a lot and I am awful at sewing things together! Now this is not the author’s fault, it is all me…anyway beware of the seaming.

To sum it up I like this book, the photos and characters are great! I wish there was less sewing and after reading through everything I realized that a lot of the patterns are just variations of each other. However, it makes me feel confident that I could vary/alter the patterns even more to come up with my own unique creations. And since I bought the book I needed to try out some of the patterns. I decided that I wanted to make the whole squirrel/fox/raccoon family, I do wish the the sets of animals were grouped together instead of spaced throughout the book, but since they are all pretty similar (as I mentioned) I guess that it makes the book seem to have more variety to space them out. This is Rita Raccoon the Mom of the family. I did make her tail slightly different from the pattern for personal design reasons (I’m making a matching family and I needed her to have a mostly dark tail). I used Peaches and Cream cotton yarn (no wool for us) and size US 5 needles. I had a really hard time embroidering her eyes (I’m still not happy with them), I think I need to use a heavier yarn and, as I mentioned I hated sewing her together. I have Rill Raccoon-Fox and Bad Ralf, the sons, knitted just waiting to be sewn together and embroidered. Oh I dread the sewing, I finished knitting them over a month ago and the pieces are just laying in the bottom of my knitting basket.

I would also like to make the cats from this book, but I’m going to have to get better at the sewing. Let me know if you have any tips or if you would like to volunteer to sew my knitting projects together for me, I'll take either :)

Wishful Wednesday the Knit & Crochet Edition

Today I’m off to my second day of work, I’m really excited about my new job and I love it. Here are some on the projects at the top of my to craft list.Bowling game set

Luscious little pumpkin

Sideways knitted skirt with short rows

The Noggins

Sock Monkey 2.0

Helmet Liner

Cthulhu Dice Bag

Camisa del Sol

Mangyle Sweater

Summer Colds and Quiet Time

Ugh!,the dreaded summer cold struck us this week.  My husband, Little Miss, and Little Man have been sick.  There has been a lot of sneezing, coughing, whining, snot, and cuddling, not so much crafting.  I did get today’s project started.

Sometimes I really need my kids to nicely (quietly) play with their toys.  I have a special selection of toys that I use for this.  Toys that aren’t everyday toys and are only played with when I need quiet time.  I found this example which lead me to this tutorial for a cute little memory game and I knew it would be perfect for my quiet game collection. I chose wooden nickels for my base, so I could use the 1” and 1 1/2” circle punches I already had.  Paper Studio’s Spooky Icons paper was just perfect for my matching images and I used some candy corn printed paper for the backs.  I’m going to store my games in a bag like Jennifer from das Sushi and I had the perfect fabric in my stash to go with my Halloween themed set.  I also bought some cute bug and kitty stickers to make non-Halloween sets, but those will have to wait. 

All I need to do is make the storage bag and add another coat of Mod Podge to the back of the nickels and I’ll have this set finished.  The good news is that Little Miss and Little Man seem to be back to normal today.

Have a super crafty weekend!

Quick Custom Cell Phone Cozy

I have a brand new cell phone for my new job and since it will be spending some time in the bottom of my purse I decided it needed a cute cozy.

For this project you will need non fraying fabric* (I used some of my sparklicious collaged fabric, but I thing that glitter vinyl would be awesome too!), felt, ruler, paper, pencil, and a sewing machine with the zigzag stitch. I started out by tracing around my phone. Then I measured how thick my phone is (btw it’s 5/8”) and added a 5/8” border all around the original shape and rounded the corners. I folded my paper in half and cut out two of this shape. I cut 1” off the top of one template to make the front and then I cut the two shapes out of fabric and felt. Match up the pieces, one vinyl to one felt with the wrong sided together. Using the zigzag stitch I sewed across the straight edge of the shorter pieces, treating the felt and vinyl like one fabric. With felt sides facing each other and vinyl facing out zigzag around the entire edge. Clip threads and you’re finished with you cute, custom cell phone cozy! I have my phone peeking out, but it fits entirely inside and slides in and out just perfectly.

*I recommend using non fraying fabric for this project because the pieces are just zigzagged together and the edges could fray. You could use a woven fabric, but be aware that you may need to use a tighter zigzag or finish the edges with fray check.