Mama Loves Crafting

T-Shirt Surplus?

Well we have this problem at our house….

And HERE is the solution. I’ve seen a lot of versions of this in blogs all over the place, I am posting mostly to save a copy of where I can refer when the time is allowed for me to create ours.

Thank you to Craft Magazine and Stars for Streetlights for the pattern/inspiration.

When you have a husband in a rock band (or several bands) you have A LOT of t-shirts…and then when you get older you might not want to sport a tee that says F*%# in big bold letters. So, just put it on your cozy blanket instead.

Happy Crafting…I’ll be back soon.

Sweet Valentine Craft

This combines my love of yarn and my love of crafting (just about anything). Super cute crafty yarn hearts courtesy of Family Chic.

We’re having our grand re-opening at our store this weekend and this is the craft we’ll be offering for our guests. It is the perfect whimsical craft just before Valentine’s Day. My scrap yarn will be put to good use.

If you are a Missoulian and want to check out our newly expanded store please come on down, you can even make a yarn heart!

Thanksgiving Crafting

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. We’ve established some fun traditions at our house and, being the giant dork that I am, I am always looking for new ones.

I recruited my sister for one of my most recent ‘projects’ and we made some fall leaves inspired by the Purl Bee. Not your traditional color palate for fall, but nobody is the boss of what color your fall leaves ought to be. We strayed from the recommended pattern a bit but not much.

This….

Is how Lexie and I craft. Smoked oysters, beer, wine, everything on the same counter so the tiny turkey can’t reach it.

The end result is fantastic, don’t worry, in spite of the bit of oyster juice on it.

I decided it was okay to use my “for special occasions wool felt” for this project. It doesn’t get much more special occasion than Thanksgiving after all. We spent the first night just cutting leaves out. We cut 40 total, two for each person’s coaster one small and the other a bit larger as you can see in the photo above. In case you’re wondering what beautiful knit treasure they are resting upon you’ll have to visit my knitting blog in about a week when I intend to have that project completed. We didn’t mind dragging this project out a bit. I think we started a month ago. It is normal to start a Thanksgiving craft a month before Thanksgiving right?

Ooh this one might actually give you a better view of our organized delicious mess.

I like to mention how long a craft takes to complete and although this seems simple there is a step that wasn’t quick. Cutting the veins for the leaves was pretty painless, although that is what I figured would be the torturous part. I’m making this sound super fun, aren’t I?

We just drew with pencil on each leaf top and cut along the lines for the veins. It was a pretty simple portion of the project.

The hard part was stitching around each of the veins and then of course along each edge. I’m pretty sure each leaf took right around 10-15 minutes once I got in the swing. It didn’t seem like it would be that complicated on a sewing machine but it was tedious.

It was Lexie’s brilliant idea to add a loop to each coaster so everyone can hang these beauties from their Christmas tree. Although, honestly, since the completion of my pile of leaves I don’t really feel like giving. I kind of want to keep the entire ensemble and hang them from my own tree. That isn’t the spirit we’re looking for though, I know. Oooh and before I forget I didn’t pin these at all while I was stitching them. That wool felt held together beautifully for me, just as if I’d ironed in some fusing.

See don’t you want your own set?

Wait until you what other crazy thing I decided to start for the 24 people coming to my house for Thanksgiving. I’ll give you a hint and a photo to ponder.

Birthday Bee Hive Piñata

This balloon popped…so we moved onto this one.

Simon turned 7 at the beginning of September. We decided we’d make him a birthday piñata and this is how it all began. I’m going to mention right off the bat this piñata business is no quick project, it is a labor of love. My kids were interested for the first application of glue-covered newspaper strips and then the novelty died off. The project adorned our dining room table for at least a week. Maybe two. Don’t get me wrong I loved the finished project, as did Simon, but I don’t believe we are committed to creating one for each of our future birthday parties.

This was the mixture of glue and water – we did near 1/2 and 1/2 and just kept refilling as we ran out.

This is pre-boredom with helping me. They were stoked to get all gluey and sticky. Cleanup was easy with just a wet washcloth.

After the days of applications were complete we popped the balloon inside. We left a smallish opening on the more narrow end of the balloon to insert the goodies.

I covered the entire thing with black crepe paper so we would have an even colored palate beneath the final layer. I ended up using a roll of white crepe paper to cover the outside (hoping to make it look a bit more hive-ish). It seemed to work for the most part but also wasn’t a quick task. I just used bits of glue stick along the edge of the 3 inch pieces I cut. I didn’t make them much bigger than this as I was working with a round object, if you make them bigger they just bubble and it is pretty impossible to go around and around and keep things looking uniform and even…as you may notice from the black crepe paper I applied first.

I used at least 3 glue sticks, and each piece of white crepe paper got its own private application.

Simon worked hard on making some puff-ball pipe cleaner bees to adorn the sides of the hive as soon as it was complete. We ended up sticking a big wooden spoon inside, tying twine to it, and flipping it sideways across the hive to hold the piñata up. The boys enjoyed filling the pinata with stickers and goodies. We kind of wanted each item we put in to be honey related (eg. Bit O’ Honey candies etc) turns out those things aren’t quite as accessible as we’d hoped they would be.

It sure got cute when we started gluing those bees on. In case you are wondering the bees wings were just made from paper.

We were pretty darn proud of our work!

This was the morning of Simon’s birthday, we wanted to get one last photo before we let the smashing commence.

The Birthday Bee Hive Piñata’s life was short…and sweet.

Rope Rug – Repost

I couldn’t resist sharing the how to on this Rope Rug! I love it. I really want someone to make it for me. heh. Durable, gorgeous and crafty!

Solar Art

As our week of Art Camp progresses we look to the sunshine, and boy do we have plenty of it in July and August.

I suppose you can put most anything on this paper and have fun results. These were my choices…NOT Simon and Gus’s choices.

This is a great simple craft for a sunny day – very easy – not messy. It filled a good gap of time because we decided we’d make a whole bunch of them using all kinds of things we found in the yard and in the house.

The kit consisted of several sheets of solar paper (of which we still have a handful) a clear cover to put your paper and goodies inside of to prevent them from sliding around as easily. We ordered ours from Amazon, but you can get them at Walking Stick Toys now! There are two different sizes in our little store.

First we decided what kinds of things we’d like to see the silhouette of. We had to discuss the fact that a photograph wouldn’t work a few times – it is a little bit tricky to wrap your head around this concept when you are 4 and 6. “So why can’t I just put this picture of me and Grandpa on here?” Me:”You can but it will just come out as a 4×6 rectangle…you won’t see your Grandpa.”

We took our treasures outside and when that blue paper hits the sun it almost immediately starts to change. Once it turns white you are ready to head back inside or to a cool water source.

Your paper/items may need to be in the sun for up to 5 minutes. Just make sure when you set your paper up you put the blue side of the paper up (exposed to the sun).

When you bring your creation in the house or to the hose you run cold water over it while gently holding the corners (you don’t really want your paper to tear so this can be tricky). You run water over the paper for approximately 1 minute.

Your paper will turn a dark blue while the places you covered with treasure remain white.

Just like magic!

I wonder what this will look like…

Art Camp Take I

Cheers….

We decided this summer that we would have an Art Camp. Last summer we rocked a ‘bug camp’ it was supposed to be a few days and ended up being 2+ weeks once the boys got a taste for it. We like to make up our very own camps instead of paying for camps through the summer. I realize that isn’t an option for many people but since we have the flexibility it is the best/favorite option for us. I love it, I think we all love it! This morning we woke up knowing it was the first day of art camp and the boys got a special surprise…remember these pens from back in the day? The pens that have every color ink all in one place. This was the scene at the kitchen counter. So you’ll have to stick with us through the week (the next few posts) to see the art camp activities we had going on!

Here is our first endeavor, or the set up for it. Mr. Gus waiting patiently under a rainbow of tempera paints.

This idea comes from this book – which is awesome!

We’ve done several projects out of here (maybe with slight variations) but it is full of fun ideas. We decided to fill socks up with sand from our sandbox and plop them in trays (we used empty terra cotta potted plant bottoms as paint holders) and tied pretty tight knots on those socks.

We found that the paint alone was a bit too thick so we ended up adding a bit of water to mixture. We just messed around with it until we had the perfect consistency. Some plops are much darker than others.

It sprays so consider yourself warned. Wear clothes that you don’t care about ruining.

Color swap.

These guys had some serious focus on this project.

It was fun when we got the next set of colors rolling. We were rinsing out the sock from time to time so that we didn’t just have a whole mess of brown splooshes on our paper. Oh and the paper we were using was just simple butcher block weight paper (nothing heavy duty).

We laid our masterpieces out to dry while we played on the swings and picked our next messy project. Stay tuned!

A Gift – Flipped Over

Somehow I forgot to show off the backside of my quilt and I decided it definitely meant another post was in order, simply because I love my quilt so much. I also neglected to mention in the gift post that the quilting was done in the shape of puzzle pieces for those of you that might be curious.

Ooh and I forgot to share one of the squares.

I didn’t want to leave anyone out. Fall is in the air, I think I’ll go stitch me up some log cabin with attitude squares right now.

A Gift

Of extreme proportions, I might add. Today I will feature one of the craftiest people I know. I was lucky enough to have two Moms in this lifetime and one of them just made me a quilt. How lucky is that? Rather than talk too much I’m going to start the show. I know there are a ton of pictures in this post but I wanted to do the ‘crafter’ justice. I’m happy to say that I will sleep under this for as long as I’m on this earth.

Even the scrappy border is amazing…

And here comes the Log Cabin with Attitude.

This particular square (below) contains some extra special love. My Aunt Sue and Aunt Karen made my Mom and Dad a quilt when they married back in 1976? This is a piece salvaged from that quilt that was falling apart in my possession. Jan had it and used bits of it all about this quilt she pieced together for me.

Sweet little snuggle model…not even on purpose he just needed something while I was in the midst of photographing each individual square. Made for a pretty cute photo.

And here she is in all her glory.

And from another angle

And here “she” is in all her glory. This is the woman behind the magic. We were hand stitching the border this particular night. And, I’m not going to lie to you, I did about a foot of the border on this king-size wonder, so I can’t say “we” without clearing things up.

What a perfect way to greet my brand new quilt, covering up my favorite babies on the planet.

Thank you for my treasure. I adore it.

Oh and stay tuned for more. I learned how to make these squares and I’m finally working on a project with these scraps for Sloane.

Fabric Crayons (in the Rain)

This weather always reminds me of our rainy day beanbags. Today we needed a quick project to entertain us for about an hour, while it poured outside. We were already on a coloring kick so I thought I’d throw in the Fabric Crayons to switch things up a bit.

Simon will contently color the day away. Today he was mighty focused.

Coloring for Grandma was the drive.

This is the first time we’ve used our fabric crayons and in hind sight I would use them on cotton fabric rather than the canvas bag we chose this morning. The bag just didn’t work quite as magnificently as I’d hoped it would.

Here are the instructions for those interested parties.

Apparently we forgot about the ‘design being reversed when transferred’. Don’t worry though clouds can cover that right on up.

I think the key is to give that crayon some gusto. You want to make sure that design is nice and dark on the paper before you iron/transfer it onto the fabric you are using.

Now for the iron – that was probably the biggest treat of all. After the crayon drawings were complete each of the boys took a turn with the iron (first time ever). They each got to transfer their own drawings onto the canvas bag. You have to be fairly patient while attempting this step. I ended up running over the paper a few more times after the boys had their go at it. You definitely need to apply some pressure during this phase and I put a piece of muslin over the top of the drawing to keep the wax off of my iron and avoid the possibility of burning paper.

You can see how exciting the reveal was above.

Since this was our first time doing this project the end result wasn’t quite as fantastic as I thought it might be, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t trying this again. In fact I think we’ll be more inclined to do this as a gift for the next special celebration we have approaching. It is a simple, quick, mess free, safe (with the exception of the iron) crafty project and I’m pretty sure I would love to be on the receiving end of a gift like this.

I think the next time I’ll use a more gentle fabric and make a pillow with it, we’ll get some practice under our belts before we attempt another canvas bag.

Ooh and avoid words, unless you are exceptionally skilled at writing backwards. One more snip – I am assuming there may be some inquiry as to whether or not the paper we used was special in any way/shape/form and it was just regular notebook paper. For the kid that loves to color this project is a cinch.

If you want your own fabric crayons you can find them below.

Mama Loves Crafting

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