Some flannel hankies…and needle felting…

I want to keep my embroidery skilz sharp…so I worked on these soft flannel hankies. Do you remember anyone in your life using a hankie? I do, why don’t people do that anymore?! I’m always too cheap thrifty to actually purchase tissues, so I always end up using toilet paper or paper towels. Can you imagine what my nose looks like after a day of that?! Well, these aren’t for me…me, I’ll probably just rip up flannel sheets and stuff them in a box and use them as throw-a-ways. I have some sheets that are so fragile they wouldn’t be good for anything else. These will go into the box I’m compiling for the bazaar. I hope to have several sets done. Which at 40 minutes per hankie for the running stitch…and don’t ask me how long that blanket stitch took…it’s a good thing I’m getting an early start. But, these will be just the thing for little delicate nosies. And I get to practice my hand stitching.

Thank you, Lisa, for the donated flannel!!! How to make hankie: cut two pieces of flannel 10” square. I used a pinking blade on my rotary cutter to help stop future fraying. Put right sides together, sew all four sides with a 1/2” seam allowance, leaving a three inch opening to turn right-side-out. Turn right-side-out. Press with iron. Topstitch however you want. Topstitching will also close the little opening you left. See, now I’m practicing my tutorial skillz!

On the turtle family front we now have four turtles. They represent my hubbie and three kids. I still have to make myself. I’ve told my youngest son he gets to put the spots on the shells. That’s him, the oddball on the right. hee hee!

And I gave this guy a “brow”. It really changes the look!

Well, that was it for the weekend! Today I’m going to help the Girl Scouts make some little notebooks. And when I say “some” I mean A LOT of notebooks. It should be interesting!!

Happy Crafting!

Kid crafts, Needle Felting, My library mug…

What a week, anybody else thinking TGIF? I got my library mug this week! Our library has a program called “Hot Reads For Cold Nights” every winter and if you sign up and read 20 books you get a mug. This is the sixth year and I’ve gotten a mug every year. It was harder for me this year to read 20 books than it’s ever been before. I don’t know why cause I love a good romance novel! Here is the newest mug and all the previous mugs…

My Valentine came home with this for me on Monday…he knows I love frogs and things that make me smile, and flowers…he knows me so well!

I made this little turtle for my youngest son…the blue roving was dyed with blue Kool Aid and the green was dyed with green Kool Aid. (And I’m finally learning not to dye yards and yards at a time…but I have enough to make him some babies…lots of babies…sigh.) He’s such a cute kid, he came to me on Valentine's morning and wrapped his arms around me and said “Happy Valentine’s Day mom, I love you” and when I gave him a box of candy hearts he said “Oh mom, you’re something else, you’re just so special, and such a nice mom!” Good grief, can a mom ask for any more!

Then I babysat the little girl I sometimes get to watch, who’s two years old, for a couple days. We made play dough the first day and the second day we went to the library with Julie and her daycare kids and back to my house for a play date and lunch. We also did a little “sewing”. As I was heading to my craft stash for plastic canvas and a big blunt needle I saw this piece of plastic. It is the insert that holds up .22 bullets in the little box they come in. It is perfect for little fingers to sew with! No needle needed, only masking tape because the holes are so much bigger! I have a nice little stash thanks to my shooting sessions with hubbie and Julie has brought over several, knowing I’d use them for something, sometimes it pays to hoard a little. (The key is to have an organized hoard!)

Have a great weekend! Happy Crafting!!!

Organizing, Needlefelting, and an App…

First of all – how creepy is this plant! It’s called “Living Stones” and I can’t stop looking at it and being grossed out. Of course I bought it – it gives me the shivers!

 

Simple organizing…I took two mushroom cans, cleaned them, covered them with double-stick tape and some scrapbooking paper. They rest nicely in my medicine cabinet…all clean and cheerful in the mornings!

A started snowman. I was going to make something else but when it didn’t turn out a snowman was born. I think it’s funny that the first snowman I made took hours and this much bigger snowman takes me a fraction of the time. Practice, practice, practice!

A started bird…the reddish color on both of these is made from Kool-Aide. I can’t even remember all the colors I used. I went into a dyeing frenzy last week and dyed a good half pound of roving. And I’m not thrilled with the results but am determined to use it up anyways! I have to say the color is starting to grow on me and was one of the better results…

OK now for the app. I spent HOURS on this last week. Having a child with special needs is time consuming. Not in a bad way. The time consuming aspect came into play for me when I wanted an app to use on her iPod Touch that would break down tasks and keep Abby on track while working. For instance if I tell Abby to clean the front entry I never know what to expect. To Abby that is a huge job! There’s shoes, coats and mittens everywhere! Seems simple to me because I know what to do…Abby just sees a big mess and where to start? Then what’s next?

There are many fabulous apps out there for kids with special needs, especially for kids on the autistic spectrum. But they can cost big bucks and there is no guarantee that they will even work for your child. Every child is so different! What works beautifully for one may not for another. So after cruising the autistic websites for a few hours I had a good idea of what I wanted. And I think I found it in this app – Note It Do It

This is a free app kinda like Evernote or OneNote.  After installing this app I very quickly cleaned the front entry and took pictures of the entire process so I could record the steps. Please excuse my pictures…geez this is almost embarrassing…but this is what I ended up with- and what it looks like on the iPod touch screen -

 

 

Part of the beauty of this app is that I can email the list to Abby. Abby has a tendency to mess around with her iPod. Her fingers get busy! She can delete things almost faster than I can enter them. Well, she can delete this list all she wants, cause I can keep sending it to her! lol! And, I can install this on her touch and I believe I can password protect it. I can’t remember exactly right now, I looked at so many different apps…I still want to try OneNote…it seems pretty awesome but to be able to share the notes you have to be able to get into “the cloud” and I have an earlier version of Windows Live Essentials installed on my computer. Have to uninstall and reinstall. And that kind of stuff scares me. Why in the heck they can’t just offer an “upgrade” I don’t know…or maybe they do and I haven’t found it yet. Sometimes all this stuff makes me feel stupid. But there are some wonderful tools out there that as a parent of a special needs child I need to take the time to figure out!

Happy Crafting!!

Paper cutting, Needle Felting, and Modge Podge

I love my local library…when we first moved here it was the first place I sought out and visited. Over the years I’ve grown to love and appreciate what a fine library we have! When I saw the book Creative Paper Cutting blogged about I really wanted the book…and sent a link to our awesome librarian, Peggy, and she ordered it!! Woo-hoo!!! So the first things I’ve cut are projects that I will be bringing to the library later today to say thank you…

Aren’t they cute! There are several other projects I have bookmarked and will cut asap!

The other night I sat down and needlefelted another chair…there is just something about chairs…I sketched this chair based on a chair I saw on chairblog …there are blogs about everything out there! One reason I like sketching chairs is because you learn a lot about perspective, and perspective is something I need to practice!

So then I loosely needlefelted this chair…holy demon dog batman!

Oh, and by the way “Hello-my name is Kim and I am a recovering hoarder”…I came to this conclusion after cleaning my office again, cause I had piles of stuff in my way again, and I ended up throwing away a lot of  junk again, I even gave a few things away…again…how and why does this seem to happen over and over again!!

In using what I have I took a plain old box and mod podge’d pattern pieces all over it. The end result is a very sturdy box to hold my (what I’ve gathered together so far…there’s more) notebook collection hoard.

Have a great weekend and Happy Crafting!!!

PS: If you want to leave a comment click on the time stamp at the bottom of this post…weird…I know!

I need your help!

I needle felted this chair over the past couple of weeks (have you figured out I always have several projects going at any given time?)…and now I want to decorate it. What do you think would look best? White polka dots? Blue flowers? I am going to needle felt some bun feet…I dyed it with drink mix using Tropical Punch and a packet of Cherry.

I tried to turn my comments back on but I don’t know if it worked or not, so you can always email me at momgib2000@gmail.com with any ideas…please…

I started quilling another heart. This is a heart that I had my hubbie draw and I’ve been slowly filling it in with coils…I hope to have this done today or tomorrow so I can show you on Friday. I used a paper crimper on one of the quilling strips and outlined the heart with it…love the effect…I’ll take a closer picture on Friday. Maybe we can have a sunny day for picture taking?

Then during the football marathon yesterday I got out my watercolors and played. The little pointy tic marks were supposed to be leaves…didn’t work out…I’ll leave them off next time! Watercolors are really a lot of fun! I tried to get my little guy involved but he just wasn’t having it. For this picture I drew some simple flowers and filled them in. Easy peasy.

For this picture I copied a free coloring page and then painted it in. It really is a lot of fun…easier than using markers I think. . .

What are you working on? Happy Crafting!

The tree is revealed! (And a quilling project)

Tah-dah!! This is the tree I’ve been working on forever! I really wanted to take it outside and take a picture (because in Minnesota finding good light indoors is a bit of a challenge) but it was –35 degrees when I woke up this morning. Not. Going. Outside!

This picture gives you a little better idea of the colors. The leaves are attached with wire so I can change them out come fall, and remove them next winter if I want. Yes, this tree is a “toy” for me.

I do want to do something with those roots. I’m thinking I need some sort of “ground” and I’ll bury them some how. I’m sure I’ll use felt. I also want to needle felt some more birds in other colors and perhaps an owl.

I needle felted the little hearts out of natural roving (same color as the sheep I needle felted)  and then after they were felted I boiled them in a red drink mix. The red is perfect!

The lighter red heart you see in the background was originally pink that I over dyed with the left over drink mix. It was very weak at that point but it still turned a nice red.

Then I decided to start a Valentine’s Day quilling project. This is how I start-I glue down some strips of paper to get my basic shape. Then fill it in with coils. (I use a toothpick to apply the glue) Done. I got this shadow box at a garage sale (two of them) last summer and removed the dorky scene they had inside and painted everything white. The quilling project is backed with a piece of cereal box cardboard that is held onto the frame with tacks. I can remove it at any time and put a different picture inside. I think I’m going to do another one today. It’s an easy craft that doesn’t take up very much room and is usually relaxing!

My “crafting in the evening” routine might have to change a bit now though, because my husband and I are in a Yahtzee war. Guess what? I WON! (this time)

Happy Crafting!!

Winter doldrums…

I really didn’t do much over the weekend…I tried…but projects just weren’t turning out. For instance, after the success of the sheep I needle felted I thought I’d try another critter. Let’s just say this is a lesson learned: don’t just start needle felting without a plan!

What the heck is that? I dunno. I threw it in the reject bag and will come back to it some other time. Or never. Remember the tree I thought I’d be able to show you? It’s not done. It’s a little closer to being done though…

And I started an Easter egg needle felting project…again…not done…

I’m not loving the pink, so I’m trying to cover it up with vines, leaves, and flowers…seems like a lot of work to cover up the pink…shoulda just started another? Yup…winter doldrums!

Hope your crafty endeavors are making you happy!

Happy Crafting!!

Wood crafts, tree crafts, and needle felting…Oh my!

A lot has happened this week…my baby turned 10! That is almost too hard to believe. I haven’t had a house without a “single digit” in it for almost 18 years! We had a birthday party for him on Tuesday. Six wild-eyed kids got off the bus at my house and had a blast. I made homemade pizza…and sliced my pinkie finger of my dominant hand on the can of black olives. Badly! Thankfully my dear neighbor is a nurse and she talked me through it…so after a little glue and a little tape I finally got the bleeding to stop…it was wild around here for a while. The injury has really slowed me down this week, I reopened the wound by just taking a shower yesterday.

I made these wooden blocks for Valentine’s Day…gotta say I don’t like how they turned out…too busy! I need to outline the letters to make them “pop” any suggestions?

Here is a sneak-peak of the tree I’ve been working on here and there since before Christmas…it is gonna be awesome!

I needle felted this little sheep last night. It is my first attempt at a “critter”…I think his legs are a little long…but then I saw a Serta mattress commercial and they have long legs too.

This is the sketch I’m working on for the sketchbook challenge. The theme this month is “most prized”…my family is the most prized to me.

I hope to finish up the tree this weekend and show it to you on Monday…Happy Crafting!!

Last minute crafty gift ideas!!

This is an old barbeque sauce bottle…

 

There is still time to whip up a couple gifts…with minimal supplies…Here is a bottle I etched with etching cream…for myself. However, I also made one up for Carmen, she already knows because I wanted her input for the words…she picked “Drink Me” (remember? Alice in Wonderland?) Anyways, I then made one up for myself. It’s as easy as sticking on some vinyl stickers (the kind you would use on your mailbox-you can get them at the dollar store) outlining the letters with masking tape, and painting on etching cream. (Thank you Julie for letting me use your etching cream!)

Here are some paper cuttings I cut out…I did a google search for “Free Holiday Clipart” and this is one of the images that popped up…there are two more elves that I want to cut out…I love the attitude! All this required was paper and a scissors!

I needle felted this little guy last night. I think I’m going to keep him. This required some roving and a felting needle. For a small investment you could have a whole herd/flock/gaggle/school of snowmen!

This little deer was made using my scroll saw, free clipart again, scrap wood, clothespin, hot glue, paint and glitter. I couldn’t tell you to go out and buy a scroll saw…but ask around! I personally know of at least four people who own them…and would let me use them! (I’ve completed three of these so far).

I made everything except the etched bottle yesterday.

Good luck and Happy Crafting!!!

What does tidy mean to you?

I’ve been wrestling with this one for a while. A few weeks ago someone who had never been in my house before called to say she’d be over in about 10 minutes. I calmly said “OK – sounds great!” and then I FREAKED!!! My house was NOT looking presentable. This was for a number of reasons…I have three kids, their friends, two dogs, a husband, a crafting addiction, and at that time a pretty busy schedule. I ran around and threw stuff behind any closed door that wasn’t already bursting at the seams. After my friend left I asked myself how I could keep that from happening again. What does tidy mean to me? Not perfect…tidy. I decided the kitchen floor had to be swept every day. The counters have to be wiped off after breakfast and making school lunches, and the kitchen table wiped down…RIGHT AWAY! We have a peninsula counter in our kitchen that is a magnet for all sorts of weird things…especially crafts. The various blankets and pillows have to be stashed from the couch, and the garbage can’t be overflowing. The shoes must be lined up neatly in the front entry and the jackets hung up.  Wet stuff (we have lots of snow) go onto the drying rack over the heating vent…not the floor. And I suppose I should swab out the bathroom as long as I’m trying to make new habits. And I’m trying to make the kids develop new habits too. That is harder on me than just doing it myself. I have to remind them constantly. I hope they start to hang their jackets automatically before I start to sound like a naggy nag.

In other news I’ve needle felted a bit -

and this little guy isn’t done yet but here’s a preview:

I also took apart my dishwasher and took this part off and cleaned it and put it back on. It’s a flow regulator thingy. (I always take pictures when I’m taking something apart so I can get back together correctly!) My dishwasher works like a brand new machine again! It was clogged with calcium! I just googled “my dishwasher doesn’t get my dishes clean” to get tips and how-to’s on what to do.

And, we decorated for Christmas! All done!!! Have a great weekend and Happy Crafting!!