Happy Birthday!

As you can see I've been on a little mini vacation from my crafts.  We've been busy with family, holidays and a birthday.  My sweet little boy turned one last week and my whole family was in town to celebrate.  He was very spoiled and now has a bunch of new toys between his birthday and Christmas presents.  We had an Elmo themed party and I made his Elmo onesie and Elmo cake. I'll show you a better picture of the onesie and cake later. Here are a few pictures from his birthday.

Penguin Ornament

Here is another handmade ornament that I made a few years back.  Very simple and it doesn't take nearly as long as the Santa ornament took me.

Materials:
foam egg
celluclay
paint
felt (hat and mittens)
google eyes
small wood stars (feet)

Mix up the celluclay mix.  Cover the egg in the celluclay and let dry.  Once the egg is dry you can sand it where it needs smoothing and paint the penguin's body.  For the feet I used little wood stars that I cut up and painted orange.  Glue the feet to the body.  The hat and mittens are made from felt and I used a blanket stitch to give it a little more decoration. Glue the mittens and hat on to the body.  Next, I glued on the eyes and nose.  The nose is a small triangle of felt.  For the ornament hanger I used a piece of jewelry wire and a big bead that stays put once I crimped it and tied it off into the hat.  I think he's a cute little ornament.

Wrapping Presents

So, the stomach bug came to reside at our house the past few days, thus the reason there hasn't been a post in a few days.  It took everything I had to stay awake and watch after my kiddos. My husband I took shifts laying on the playroom floor watching our youngest one, while our daughter was very content watching as much TV as she possibly could.  I even busted out with the new Shrek movie which was supposed to be a Christmas present.  Anyway, we are feeling much better, on to my post. :)

I absolutely love to wrap presents and make beautiful bows to go on each of the packages.  My key to wrapping presents is double stick tape.  I hardly ever buy the regular scotch tape anymore.  I just fold over the raw edges and put a piece of double stick tape on the paper.  It gives it such a clean look and doesn't take much longer to use double stick tape.
To make the present more appealing I like to add bows, trinkets, hand-made gift tags.  There are many ways to create a special package and you can make each package unique and creative.  Here are some of the presents I wrapped for Christmas.

 A close-up of the "A" that I made with wire and beads. 

 

 Pom Pom out of yarn for a bow.

Simple piece of twine with some white jingle bells.

Tooth Chair

This is completely appropriate for today as I went to the dentist to get a new crown.  The tooth chair was designed by Philippe Starck back in 2002.  He designed it for the Saint Martins Lane Hotel in London.  If you have never seen any of his work then definitely go check it out.  He's an amazing designer and designs absolutely everything from sinks to clothes. Click here to see more.

My Crafty Child

My daughter is turning into mini version of myself.  The other day she had some ribbon and was telling me that she wanted to make a picture frame for her preschool teacher.  I wasn't going to hear the end of it until I got her everything she needed for her project. She's very persuasive.  I got all my beads, paint and glitter glue out for the project.  My daughter adores all things that sparkle and shine.  For the frame itself we just used cardboard since it was something I had on-hand.  It actually turned out really cute and she wanted to keep it after we finished it, but I convinced her that she could make herself another one tomorrow. 
Here is the final product.  I think she did a great job for a 4 year old.

 

Cranberry Shortbread Bars

All I have to say is delicious.  I made them after Thanksgiving because I had a bag of cranberries leftover.  After I made them, I went back to the store and bought a few more bags to freeze to make more another time.  I found the recipe on Joy of Baking.  She has a wonderful selection of cranberry recipes on her site.  Here's a link to the recipe.  They also freeze really well. 

Outdoor Christmas Tree

 Here's a very simple project on making your own outdoor Christmas tree decoration.  This project came about because our store bought ones were stolen last year.  The nerve of some people!  They took off with our little trees and our blow up Frosty the snowman.  My daughter was so upset that we replaced Frosty and made our own trees.

Materials:

dowel rod (.5 dia X 42")

1/2" or 3/4" plywood circle (Approx 24" Dia)

eye bolts (13)

white paint

2 strings of lights (100 count Ea.)

zip ties

First step is to draw a circle on the plywood.  The easiest way to do this is to drill a screw in the center and tie a string half of the diameter from the screw to the pencil.  Then draw a circle.

Now cut the circle out with a jigsaw.  I then painted it white and added the eye bolts.  You will evenly space the eye bolts around the circle. 

Go ahead and cut the dowel rod to size and paint it white as well.  Next you will put an eye bolt in the top of the dowel rod.

Now use a small paddle bit and drill out a hole in the center of the circle.  Don't go all the way through the circle, just enough to put the dowel rod in.

Now it is time to string the lights.  Use a zip tie to secure the end of the string of lights to an eye bolt.

Take the string of lights and go to the top of the dowel rod and zip tie it to the eye bolt on the dowel rod.

Take the string back down to the circle on the opposite side that you started on.  Keep in mind while string the lights that you need to balance the tension on each side every time you go up to the dowel rod.

Zip tie the end of the string of light to the last eye bolt.  Trim the ends of the zip ties.

Now it is ready to be plugged in and put on display in your yard.

 Linked up to-

http://thediyshowoff.blogspot.com/
http://www.craftskeepmesane.blogspot.com/

Wine Rack

This week I found a really cool wine rack made by the Iron Design Company.  I just love how it ripples down the wall.  You can find more work produced by the Iron Design Company here.

Christmas Decoration Revamp

About 8 years ago my Grandma sent me a crocheted tree Christmas decoration.  I'm pretty sure it was something that she made years ago and was passing it along to me.  This Christmas when I was pulling my decorations out I decided it was time to replace the ornaments on this cute little crochet tree.  Some were missing and others damaged as you can see from the picture.

I wasn't sure if I would just knit up some little Christmas ornaments to replace them or if I could find some small ornaments to replace them.  I did find some ornaments, but they were pretty fragile, so I opted to go with red jingle bells.  I think they look perfect and are just the right size.  Unfortunately, the picture doesn't show the red well, but you get the idea.

Something funny

This post has nothing to do with crafts or any projects I have made, but I thought it was so funny that I wanted to share.  This is my son blowing raspberries on my belly.  I'm guessing he got the idea from my excessive raspberries on his tummy.  He cracks me up!

Art Easel Tutorial

Here is the tutorial that I promised you all for the art easel.  I'm sorry that I didn't take pictures while I was making it, but I'm going to piece this together for you.  If you have any questions, let me know and I'll be happy to answer them for you.  The art easel was made for my daughter who is 4 years old so it might be a little tall if you are wanting to make this for a younger child.  If that is the case, then, I would cut the legs of the easel shorter to accommodate.

Materials:
1"x2"x72" pieces of lumber (4 pieces)
white panel board or a whiteboard (24" x 24")
chalkboard paint
1/4" plywood sheet (24" x 24")
2 mud pans
pair of hinges
2" drywall screws
string
2 eye bolts
#18 x 3/4" wire nails

molding 
wood filler

To get started we need to have 4 pieces of 1x2x72 to make the frame. I used birch for the project.  First, cut a 21" and 50" piece out of each 1x2x72. This gives you four pieces that are 21" long and four pieces that are 50" long. You will use these pieces to make the two halves for the frame.  Use 2" screws to assemble frame per drawing below.  You will end up with 2 frames after this step is complete.

To assemble the frames together we need to lay the frames out with the tops butted together.  Place hinges at intersection of the two frames at edge of each side.  Screw in place. You should now see it taking shape and becoming an "A" frame.  The picture below shows the hinge placement.

Eye bolts will be attached to the lower cross piece on each frame from the inside. Attach a string to the eye bolts, this keeps the easel from opening up too wide. The picture below shows the eye bolts and string placement.

 

Now you will need to paint your 24" x 24" plywood piece with chalkboard paint.  The plywood will probably need 2 coats of chalkboard paint and you might want to go ahead and start with this step to allow for it dry while you are assembling the frame.  After the paint is dry we will attach it to the frame of the easel with wire nails.  Next, you will take your 24" x 24" whiteboard and attach it to the other side of the easel with wire nails.

To give the easel a more finished appearance I chose to put a molding around the chalkboard and whiteboard.  You will attach the molding by using the wire nails. I used wood filler to cover the holes from the nails in the frame. Lastly, I attached the mud pans to the lower cross section of the easel with screws.  This was a perfect choice to store the markers and chalk for the art easel. 

The project is now complete.  My kids love their new art easel and I'm sure whomever you are making this easel for will love it just as much!

Rocking Squares

I thought this was a pretty interesting rocking horse, definitely something I haven't seen before.  Rocking Squares was designed by Frederik Roije and is part of the Square series.  The design concept behind the Square series is to develop traditional furniture out of square shapes.  To see more designs from Frederik Roije click here.

Car Seat Cover

I found a great pattern on etsy to make a car seat cover for my son's car seat. It was my daughter's car seat and even though I doubt he cares that he's sitting in a car seat covered in flowers and pink, I figured it was time to make him a new one.

 
I found the pattern at the etsy shop Make It All Yours.  It is a great pattern and very easy to follow.  I looked into buying a new car seat cover for our Britax Marathon and it was going to be much cheaper for me to make my own versus shelling out 70 dollars for a new one.  I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

 

Santa Ornament

We put up our tree this past weekend and it reminded me that I need to show you the DIY Santa ornament I made last year.  I found the instructions in the 2009 Better Home & Gardens Holiday Craft magazine.  They seriously should have put this sentence in the instructions when I was contemplating making them.  **Warning, this ornament will take DAYS to make.**  I was crazy enough to make 9 of them last year.  What's wrong with me?  There are quite a few steps in making just one and then there is also the drying time for the clay to set up.  The end product is quite cute so I'd have to say it was worth all the effort.  The basic materials that make up the Santa are 2 foam balls (one small one for the head, and a half of a bigger one for the body), toothpicks for his legs, wire for his arms and clay. After I was done forming the Santa ornament, I let it dry for a few days.  Then I painted him and added a piece of fishing line for him to put up on the tree.

Headstand Stool

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!  We had a great time spending the day with our family.  Here's a really fun stool.  It even has a youtube video showing you how it works.  The stool is made by qed design based out of Germany.

Fish Hat Tutorial

I finally had time to put together the fish hat tutorial for you all.  I think it's a great hat and really you could probably make all kinds of different animals for hats by using this basic hat shape.  All the kids that tried the hat on loved it.  You may need to make it bigger or smaller depending on the child's head size.

Materials:
1/2 yard Fleece Fabric - main color
1/4 yard Fleece Fabric - accent color
2 " strip of Velcro
Coordinating thread
Fiber fill
Google Eyes


The pattern is available through Scribd.  If you are printing in Adobe Acrobat Reader, please make sure page scaling is set to NONE in the print menu. 


Fish Hat Pattern


Lay out the fabric and cut out the pattern pieces for the hat.

Then cut out the fins, tail, lips on the accent color.

I used the main color on the fins, tail and lips too.  You just need to cut the same pieces out slightly larger than you did on the accent color.  Then you will sandwich it in between the accent color. I'm letting you know ahead of time though that it gets tough to sew through that many layers of fleece.  So you might want to use felt.

Start sewing the tail pieces together.  Do the same with the fins and lips. Stuff the tail and fins with fiber fill.

Next we will start assembling the hat.  Sew 2 of the quadrant pieces together, then sew the other 2 together.

Now place the tail and top fin on the inside with the right sides together.  Pin and sew together.

Flip the hat out and sew the lips to the front.

 

Sew the fins on the side.  Center middle of fins with side seam and sew.

Sew two pieces of the ear flaps together and turn right side out. Repeat for the other side.

Attach side flaps to sides of the hat.  Center the middle of the flap with the side seam of the hat and sew in place.

Sew fleece lining together.  Leave a 2" gap in the top between where the top fin and back fin are on the hat.  This will allow you to pull it through at the very end.

Pin lining to fish hat with right sides facing each other.  It will look like a ball when you are doing this step.

Sew together.

Turn inside out by pulling through the hole you left in between the tail and top fin.  Whipstich the opening closed. Tack lining to hat.

Cut a 2" piece of velcro or longer depending on size of the child's head.  Attach to flaps.

Glue on the google eyes.  I used hot glue to glue them on.  Now you're done!