I May Have Broken the Baby

I do crafty stuff almost everyday, some days I get to do more than others, but here lately life has gotten in the way.  Having two different sicknesses hit our house this month has really drained everyone, especially me.  To make things more complicated I may have broken the baby.  Little Man has been the best baby ever, he’s happy all the time, likes everyone, stops crying the minute you pick him up, is curious and active and usually goes to sleep whenever he is put into his crib, but here lately he has completely given up sleeping at night.  Every night he kicks and screams and cries to fight sleeping, it’s crazy.  He’s not hungry, diaper’s nice and fresh, all his favorite blankies are there, nothing has changed.  He still takes his naps just fine, but no, he doesn’t want to sleep at night and if he can’t sleep, I can’t sleep.  Last night on the fifth time I went to feed him and re-tuck him in I notice this, look down by his hands: Those are teeth marks, he’s been gnawing on his crib like a beaver.  That can’t be good.   I checked to see if he was teething and I’m not seeing any swelling or new teeth, but maybe the ones he has are giving him fits.  I normally keep a blanket over the side of the crib, but he has been pulling it off, I’m going to have to find a way to keep the blanket up there.  I also need to get him back into his routine, but so far, it’s not going well.  Maybe I’ll get him fixed this weekend.

My point is that I haven’t gotten a lot of my current projects wrapped up enough to share.  I’ll admit that sometimes the paint is still wet or I might need to go back and snip a few thread or put a few more finishing touches on things before they’re completely done, but usually they are done enough to share.  I ran out of time this week.  I’m working on my normal half a dozen projects with plans to start more, but nothing is even close to finished although I am having a great time working on them all.

If you have any suggestions to get Little Man sleeping again at night DO let me know and Have a super crafty weekend!!!

Knitted Flat Bottom Pouch

It seems like I don’t craft a lot for my husband and earlier this week I noticed that his collection of dice, that he uses for playing Magic the Gathering, was being stored in a large, ripped, Ziploc bag.  I picked up the nearest ball of yarn (caron simply soft in black) and started knitting him a flat bottomed dice pouch.

I started by casting on 20 stitches using US size 5 needles and then I continued in stockinette stitch (knit the right side, and purl the wrong side) for 22 rows.  I didn’t cast off at this point and started picking up stitches along the sides.  Using double pointed needles, I picked up 20 stitches on each of the three remaining sides, which gave me a total of 80 stitches on my needles.  I began knitting in the round, after about 10 rounds I was able to get the stitches onto a 12” circular needle, which is easier for me to knit with.  Continue knitting in the round until the bag measures 4” from the bottom edge, where we picked up the stitches.  The next row, *knit 6, knit 2 together, and yarn over* repeat from * 9 more times to the end of the row.  Knit 4 more rows and bind off.  I made a twisted cord for my lace and laced it through the holes made by the knit 2 together, yarn over row.The reason I chose to make a flat bottomed pouch is so that he could leave it open while he was playing and easily get the dice he needs.

This project was a success, he really likes it and I’m sure he’ll get a lot of use out of it.  Let me know if I need to clarify the pattern instructions, it’s hard for me to write out what I did in my head.

Spool Stamp Tutorial

Here’s another idea to use up some of those empty spools, it’s also a great project to do with kids.

Supplies:

empty spools

sticky back foam sheets

Exacto knife and/or scissors

This is a great project for the spools with the stubborn labels that are hard to take off because you won’t need to peel them off for this project.  Trace around the bottom of your spool on to the back (paper part) of the sticky backed foam sheet and cut out these circles.  You’ll need two circles of foam for each stamp, I like to use both ends of my spools. Peel off backing and stick one circle to the end of the spool this makes a good base for you design to go on and prevents the end of the spool from damaging your design.  I like to trim the excess foam from the edge of the spool with my exacto knife, but it’s not necessary.Draw your design on the back of the foam.  The great part about this is if you choose to make letters or numbers they will be facing the correct way when they are stamped.Cut out your design and stick it on top of the other piece of foam on the end of the spool.  I used my exacto knife to cut out the center and regular scissors to cut the edges.  If you are careful and save the foam pieces that you cut from your design you can make a stamp from those too and have a negative version of you design.  That can be a lot of fun for stamping with different colored inks.Stamp away!  I like to accent these stamps with pen details.  These stamps aren’t as sharp as eraser stamps, but are much easier to make and only require basic supplies.   As you can see, I’m still making more button stamps.  Kids really love to make these and it’s an inexpensive way to make a lot of stamps.

I love to see you results if you give this project a try.

Plastic Spool Toy Beads

I have an abundance of plastic spools and while doing some rearranging I found a huge container of them (head over to the Facebook page to see a photo) and decided that I needed to come up with some ways to use them or *gasp* get rid of them.  So here is the first project of what I hope will be many using plastic spools: 
You will need:

empty spools

scrapbook paper, wrapping paper, or fabric

Mod Podge (I used glossy, oooh shiny)

crochet yarn chain, shoe string, or cording

brushes, scissors/paper cutter, pencil, and ruler

Start by cleaning the labels off of the ends of the spools, most of my labels peeled right off, but you may need to soak them and use some goo gone to get rid of the sticky. Measure the height of the spool, just the flat area where the thread was, in this example 1 1/2” is the height.  Spool sizing is not standard, mine ended up being three different heights (this is the point where I sorted all my spools out by type).  Cut your paper into strips the proper height for your spools. I wrapped my papers around my spools and marked where they met.  Some of my spools were 4 1/8” around, I made all my strips 4” long so I could get three covers from a strip of 12” scrapbook paper.
After cutting all my papers I used the Mod Podge to glue them onto the spools.  Don’t be stingy, you want to put a nice coat of Mod Podge on the spools and then carefully smooth the paper down, pay special attention to the ends and make sure they are stuck down good.  Once all the bubbles are out coat the top of the paper with Mod Podge too, I went over the edges onto the spools to really seal it in.
I made a crochet chain for the string part, dip the ends of the yarn in Mod Podge while you have it out, it will seal them and keep them from fraying. Little Miss loves these beads, she wears them as a necklace, makes them into a snake, stacks them up and knocks them down, uses them as little dolly stools, and has a lot of great fun with them!
*Notes*
Obviously the string could be a choking hazard, if it were wrapped around the neck by itself.  If you are concerned about this the spools could be permanently attached to the string instead of leaving it loose for stringing.
I used black spools, but you could also paint them any color you want with the new plastic paint (I want to make some lime green ones next) before Mod Podging the paper on.
You can use fabric instead of paper.
A shoelace would also work great for stringing the beads.
Since is used leftover paper from my Holiday Photo Ornaments, I’m thinking about making this into some sort of garland to hang them on.  I know that sounds kind of lame, but really, it’s cool in my head (I’ll keep you posted if I decide to give it a try).
Have a super crafty weekend!

Button Button

Every day I have been checking Traci Bunkers blog following her 30 day of carving (stamps), it has been very inspiring.  On day 24 her stamp looked like a button and suddenly all I ever wanted was a hand carved button stamp.  Now, I did not want to copy hers, I wanted to be inspired/influenced, but not a copy cat.So here I am trying not to copy her stamp, that blue one is pushing it.   I even got out my box of buttons to find some authentic designs. I find the less stylized ones more interesting, the octagon one (second from the left) is my favorite.  BTW, button holes and thread are really hard to carve!  I also randomly felt the need to make a citrus slice stamp.
I am really obsessed with this shape/idea.  I am going to explore this motif more, maybe a larger stamp, smaller stamp or a different stamping material.